SHE ASKED FOR A PIECE OF BREAD... THEN PROMISED TO MAKE THE BILLIONAIRE'S SON WALK

The traitor was found before sunrise.

A junior nurse named Peter Lang had disabled the hallway camera and attempted to remove Julian's blood samples. Security caught him at the service elevator with two vials hidden beneath his jacket.

Charles questioned him in the library while Daniel Ross stood by the door.

Peter lasted nine minutes.

Meridian had paid his debts, threatened his sister, and ordered him to destroy any sample taken after Julian stopped the injections. He claimed he did not know why.

"Who gave the order?" Charles asked.

Peter whispered, "Dr. Hale."

Miriam disappeared before police reached her apartment.

By morning, videos from the restaurant had spread across every major platform. News vans crowded the street below the penthouse. Commentators called Elise a miracle child, a scam artist, and a criminal. Charles refused all interviews.

Inside, Julian began withdrawal.

His body shook. Fever came in waves. The independent specialists discovered traces of a synthetic neural inhibitor in his blood, but the compound was designed to break down quickly. There was not yet enough evidence to prove deliberate poisoning.

Elise remained beside him.

She taught Julian the breathing exercises Anna had used. She pressed pressure points to reduce spasms and made him focus on tiny movements instead of impossible goals.

"Don't try to walk," she told him. "Try to move one toe."

"That's not exactly inspiring."

"Walking is just a lot of smaller things pretending to be one big thing."

Julian smiled for the first time that day.

Hours passed.

At sunset, his left big toe moved.

Charles was standing near the window when Julian called his name. He turned and saw the toe lift, fall, then lift again.

The billionaire covered his mouth.

Julian laughed and cried at once. "Did you see it?"

Charles dropped beside the bed. "I saw."

Elise quietly stepped away, giving father and son the moment.

Later, Charles found her asleep on the floor outside Julian's room, still wearing the clean pajamas the housekeeper had given her. He lifted her carefully and carried her to the guest room.

Halfway there, Elise woke in panic and grabbed his collar.

"Don't send me back."

"Back where?"

"Anywhere."

Charles felt something in him fracture. He had thought hunger was the worst thing a child could fear. He realized being unwanted could be worse.

"No one is sending you anywhere tonight," he said.

The next morning, Daniel brought news. Anna Harper had not died in an accident. Hospital records showed she had been admitted under a false name to a psychiatric facility owned by a Meridian subsidiary.

The facility closed eighteen months earlier after a fire.

Seven patients were listed as deceased.

Anna was not among them.

Elise read the report twice. "She's alive."

"We don't know that," Charles said carefully.

"You don't know she's dead. That's different."

Julian rolled into the room. His face was pale, but his eyes were bright.

"Then we find her."

Charles wanted to protect both children by keeping them inside the penthouse. Yet protecting Julian through control had helped create the prison around him.

He looked at Elise, then at his son.

"We find her," he agreed.

At that exact moment, a package arrived downstairs with no return address.