Chapter 3 - The Accident
Twelve years earlier Grant was twenty-eight.
Newly married to Rachel.
Building Holloway Capital.
Driving home from a charity dinner when a truck crossed center line.
Impact crushed driver side.
Two surgeries.
Months rehabilitation.
He regained arm function quickly.
Legs did not.
Doctors never called paralysis complete.
Technically:
Severe bilateral motor impairment following spinal trauma.
Over years, prognosis became functionally permanent.
Grant stopped asking whether he would walk.
He built life around chair.
Then Rachel died.
And eleven months later he stood.
His neurologist, Dr. Aaron Bell, reviewed video.
“This shouldn't be impossible.”
Grant frowned.
“You've told me twelve years it was.”
“No. I told you sustained functional recovery was unlikely.”
Important distinction.
Could adrenaline explain?
Possibly brief activation.
But both legs supporting weight?
Unusual.
Then Grant gave him medical records.
Bell found inconsistency.
For first eighteen months after accident, Grant improved.
Muscle response increased.
Then abruptly plateaued.
Six months later, deteriorated.
Why?
Could be secondary scarring.
Medication effects.
Disuse.
Neurological complication.
Many possibilities.
Then toxicology on S-8 vial returned.
It contained a prescribed injectable sedative combined with an anti-nausea medication.
Not something appropriate for Emma without medical supervision.
Selena claimed Emma was having panic episode and she intended administer medication prescribed previously.
False.
No prescription.
Police investigation continued.
But more interesting was G.H.-12.
Laboratory analysis:
Mostly sterile saline.
Trace concentration of an old medication called neostigmine.
A drug that can temporarily improve neuromuscular transmission in certain conditions.
Not miracle spinal treatment.
It could not regenerate severed nerves.
If vial contributed to Grant standing, that implied his limitation might not be what he believed.
But Emma said she never administered it.
Blood test showed no meaningful neostigmine.
So vial had not made him stand.
Then why Rachel preserved it?
Grant searched wooden box.
Under velvet lining:
twelve pharmacy receipts.
One for each year after accident.
All cash.
All same clinic.
Westbridge Neurological Center.
Grant had never been patient there.
Then one name:
Dr. Selena Marlowe.
Grant stared.
Selena’s maiden name.
She wasn't physician.
But her father was.
May you like
Dr. Victor Marlowe.
The neurologist who treated Grant after accident.
