Chapter 5 - The Treatment
Victor had participated in private rehabilitation study.
Not illegal human experimentation.
A legitimate off-label protocol involving medications and intensive neuromuscular therapy.
Grant was enrolled with consent.
Rachel had signed too.
Grant barely remembered paperwork.
Study had mixed results.
Several patients improved.
Two worsened.
Grant was one.
Victor ended participation.
Why hide?
He didn't.
Original study documents existed.
So Selena’s dramatic statement was partly misleading.
The treatment may have contributed to weakness, but no proof malicious intent.
Then Grant asked:
“Why did your father keep G.H.-12?”
Control sample from Grant’s medication batch.
Stored improperly at home?
Possible ethics violation.
Selena inherited father’s files.
Rachel discovered.
That was how Rachel got vial.
Then why handwritten 12?
Not twelve years.
Batch number twelve.
Another misdirection.
Grant almost laughed.
He had turned coincidence into prophecy.
Then Selena said Rachel contacted her two years ago.
Grant froze.
“You knew my wife?”
“Yes.”
For almost eighteen months.
Secretly.
Rachel wanted Victor’s records.
Selena provided them.
“Why didn't Rachel tell me?”
“She thought you would confront everyone before she understood.”
That sounded painfully plausible.
Grant was protective and impulsive when family threatened.
Then Selena admitted she and Rachel became friends.
Not close.
But allies.
Rachel concluded Victor had made medical mistakes.
No intentional harm.
Then investigation shifted.
Someone after Victor had altered Grant’s records to make prognosis look worse.
Who?
Records administrator?
Insurer?
Private physician?
Grant’s wealth complicated incentives.
If he remained disabled, a family trust clause activated.
Grant stared.
“What trust?”
Selena looked shocked.
“You don't know?”
Holloway Family Stewardship Trust.
Created by Grant’s grandfather.
If Grant became permanently unable to perform executive duties, voting authority temporarily transferred.
To whom?
Rachel initially.
After Rachel’s death?
Trust protector.
Who?
Grant’s younger brother Nathan.
Grant went cold.
Nathan had controlled Holloway voting block for eleven months.
Since Rachel died.
Now financial motive emerged.
Had Nathan kept Grant in chair?
Too obvious.
Then trust attorney explained:
Wheelchair use did not trigger clause.
Grant himself signed incapacity certification twelve years ago.
He could revoke with independent medical review.
Nathan had no reason to prevent physical recovery specifically.
He already controlled voting only while Grant voluntarily remained certified.
Grant could revoke regardless walking.
So motive weakened.
Then Emma asked:
“Why was Selena scared when you stood?”
Exactly.
Selena knew something.
Grant replayed video.
She didn't look surprised.
She said:
“Grant… don't.”
Not “How?”
Not “You can walk?”
Don't.
She had expected possibility.
Then Grant remembered something from Rachel’s note:
Don’t trust recovery.
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Maybe Selena wasn't afraid secret would be exposed.
Maybe she was afraid standing itself was dangerous.
