Chapter 10 - the voices inside the chair)
They hid inside an abandoned physical therapy clinic Marcus once owned in Brooklyn.
The windows were covered.
The equipment was old.
But the building had electricity.
For Evan, it looked like another version of every room where adults had told him what his body could not do.
Marcus removed a panel beneath the joystick.
A tiny solid state drive was wired into the control system.
"Encrypted."
"Can we open it?" Evan asked.
"Eventually."
"Eventually isn't enough."
Richard would reach them.
That was no longer a possibility.
It was a countdown.
Naomi contacted a journalist named Maya Chen, someone Claire had trusted years earlier.
Maya agreed to come.
Mrs. Dawson contacted a federal prosecutor outside New York.
Marcus worked on the drive.
Nia sat beside Evan.
Neither spoke.
Finally she said, "Are you scared to try walking?"
Evan laughed softly.
"Terrified."
"Why?"
"Because if I can't, then my father wins."
Nia shook her head.
"No."
"What?"
"If you can't walk today, you try tomorrow."
"You make everything sound easy."
"It's not easy."
She lifted one foot.
The sole was cut and bruised.
"I hate shoes because my mother used to buy me the wrong size. We didn't have money for another pair. So I stopped wearing them."
Evan looked at her.
"Where is your mother?"
"She died when I was four."
"I'm sorry."
Nia shrugged.
"My grandmother says being sad and being broken aren't the same thing."
Evan looked at his legs.
"Maybe."
Marcus called from the desk.
"I have it."
Everyone gathered.
Audio files appeared.
Thousands.
Most were ordinary.
Richard speaking to assistants.
Phone calls.
Meetings.
Then Marcus searched for certain keywords.
Claire.
Evan.
Lantern.
A file appeared from eight months earlier.
Richard's voice.
"His left foot moved."
Another man answered.
Security director Carl Bennett.
"Could be involuntary."
"It wasn't."
"What do you want done?"
"Increase the dose."
Evan felt sick.
Marcus looked at him.
Evan said, "Keep playing."
Another recording.
Richard and a lawyer.
"If Evan regains mobility before eighteen, Claire's trust clause could be challenged."
"Claire is dead."
"Then why did her attorney renew the protective filing last year?"
Silence.
Evan looked at Naomi.
"She filed something last year?"
Naomi shook her head.
Marcus whispered, "Claire."
They played more.
Richard speaking to Carl.
"Find Eleanor Vale."
"We found the apartment."
"And?"
"Empty."
"Burn it."
Nia looked at the old newspaper clipping.
Eleanor's death had been staged.
Another recording.
This one from three weeks earlier.
Richard and an unknown woman.
Female voice.
"You promised the boy would never recover."
Richard.
"He won't."
Female voice.
"And the other child?"
Silence.
Evan leaned closer.
Richard.
"She doesn't know who she is."
The room went still.
Nia whispered, "The second child."
The woman continued.
"If Claire reaches her first, everything changes."
Richard.
"Claire hasn't reached anyone in years."
Woman.
"You don't know that."
Then Richard said a name.
"Lily."
Evan felt an inexplicable chill.
Marcus searched Lantern files for Lily.
Nothing.
Naomi searched Claire's documents.
Nothing.
Maya Chen arrived forty minutes later.
She was in her forties, carrying two laptops and enough skepticism for everyone.
She listened to the recordings.
Studied the documents.
Then she looked at Evan.
"If this is authentic, your father is finished."
"Then publish it."
"I will."
"Now."
"I need verification."
Evan slammed his hand against the armrest.
"Everyone needs one more thing."
Maya did not flinch.
"That's how truth survives lawyers."
Before Evan could answer, every screen in the clinic went black.
Marcus stood.
"No."
A message appeared.
COME HOME.
Then another.
YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO ME.
Evan stared.
The message changed again.
THE GIRL TOO.
Nia stepped backward.
Naomi moved in front of her.
Marcus unplugged the router.
Too late.
A live video appeared.
Richard stood inside the Whitmore ballroom.
The gala was continuing.
Guests were still there.
Police officers now stood near the doors.
Richard looked directly into the camera.
"Evan."
Maya whispered, "He's streaming this."
Richard continued.
"My son has been abducted tonight by dangerous people exploiting his grief."
Evan stared in disbelief.
Richard's voice broke perfectly.
"If you're watching this, son, please come home."
Maya cursed.
"He got ahead of us."
Richard had turned them into kidnappers.
Marcus into a disgraced doctor.
Naomi into a former employee with a criminal trespassing complaint.
Nia into a runaway child.
Mrs. Dawson into a thief.
Richard's final words filled the clinic.
"I will not stop until my son is safe."
The broadcast ended.
Everyone looked at Evan.
He understood.
Running would no longer work.
His father owned the story.
The only place to destroy that story was where it had begun.
The ballroom.
Evan turned to Maya.
"Can you broadcast live?"
"Yes."
"Can he stop you?"
"Maybe."
"Can you make it difficult?"
Maya smiled slightly.
"Very."
Evan looked at Marcus.
"How long until the medicine clears?"
Marcus checked the clock.
"You may have partial strength by tomorrow."
"I don't need tomorrow."
"What are you planning?"
Evan looked at Nia.
She understood first.
"We're going back."
Naomi said, "Absolutely not."
Evan shook his head.
"My father built his entire life around people seeing me helpless."
May you like
He looked at his legs.
"So we're going to let them watch when that ends."
