“Your son suffered catastrophic brain damage. Noah cannot rebuild what was permanently destroyed.”
“You said my legs would never function again.”
“That was different.”
“I stood up.”
“Yes, and we still do not understand why. But the boy’s sister needs surgery. She cannot wait while you chase another miracle.”
Victor slammed something onto the desk.
“My son comes first.”
Noah’s heart began pounding.
Victor had a son.
A son hidden somewhere inside the estate.
And Noah had not been brought there to help Lily.
Lily had been used to lure him in.
Noah hurried back to his room.
As soon as he closed the door, a memory returned with extraordinary clarity.
He was six years old, sitting beside his grandmother in a field beyond the city.
She had taken his hands and told him the truth about their family.
“The gift passes through our blood,” she had said. “It can restore what illness or injury has taken. But it cannot create what never existed, and it cannot reverse every kind of damage.”
“Can it save everyone?” young Noah had asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because you do not create life. You share your own strength. Every time you heal someone, you give away part of yourself.”
“What happens if I give too much?”
His grandmother’s expression had become sorrowful.
“Then one day, you may have nothing left.”
Noah returned to the present, breathing rapidly.
Victor had been healed because the nerves in his legs were damaged but not entirely destroyed.
Lily’s heart had been malformed since birth.
Noah’s gift could not rebuild it.
And if Victor’s son had suffered irreversible brain damage, the gift might not help him either.
But Victor would force Noah to try.
Noah left his room and went to Lily’s medical suite.
The door was locked.
He pressed his ear against it and heard her coughing.
“I’m here,” he whispered through the door. “I’m going to get us out.”
The Secret Behind the Locked Door
The following day, Victor left the estate for a board meeting.
Noah waited until the household became quiet before returning to the library.
He searched the desk, opening drawers filled with contracts, property records, and financial reports.
At the bottom of a hidden compartment, he found an old photograph.
It showed a much younger Victor standing beside a smiling woman and a small boy.
The boy looked about five years old.
His eyes were remarkably similar to Noah’s.
On the back, someone had written:
Victor and Daniel, before the accident. My two miracles.
Noah stared at the words.
He remembered the servants mentioning an old car crash. They had said Victor’s wife died and that the tragedy left him unable to walk.
But they had never mentioned the boy.
The library door opened.
Noah spun around.
Ethan, Victor’s driver and head of security, stood in the doorway.
“What are you doing?”
Noah quickly hid the photograph behind his back.
Ethan crossed the room and took it from him.
“You should not be in here.”
“Who is Daniel?”
“That is none of your concern.”
“Mr. Harrow wants me to heal him.”
Ethan’s face remained unreadable.
“He wants you to keep your agreement.”
“My agreement was about my sister.”
“You are in no position to decide what the agreement means.”
Ethan returned the photograph to the drawer.
Then he stepped aside and pointed toward the door.
“Go back to your room.”
Noah obeyed.
But the truth had already begun to surface.
That night, he found Dr. Keller beside Lily’s bed.
The doctor was adjusting a monitor while Lily slept.
Noah closed the door behind him.
“Tell me about Daniel.”
Dr. Keller froze.
“You were listening.”
“Please. I need to know.”
The doctor looked at Lily, then pulled a chair closer.
“Sixteen years ago, Victor was driving home with his wife and son. Their car left the road during a storm. His wife died at the scene. Victor suffered a spinal injury. Daniel survived, but his brain was deprived of oxygen for too long.”
“Is he awake?”
“No.”
“Where is he?”
“In a private wing beneath the west side of the estate.”
“Has he been there all this time?”
“Yes.”
Noah felt sick.
“And Mr. Harrow thinks I can wake him?”
“He believes you are his final chance.”
“Can I?”
Dr. Keller looked away.
“I don’t know everything about your ability. But based on what I have seen, I do not believe so.”
“Then why doesn’t he let us leave?”
“Because grief has made him incapable of accepting another loss.”
“That doesn’t give him the right to use us.”
“No. It does not.”
Noah looked at his sister.
Her breathing was shallow.
“When will she have surgery?”
“She should already be in a hospital.”
“Then take her.”
“I cannot move her without Victor’s authorization. He owns the medical facility, employs the staff, and controls the security.”
Noah’s hands curled into fists.
“You’re a doctor.”