Chapter 3 - The Doctor Who Wanted Me Helpless
Dr. Whitmore disappeared for eleven hours.
Nobody knew where he went.
His phone was off.
His office assistant claimed he had canceled all appointments.
By midnight, Rafael had called private security.
By morning, police were involved.
Elena sat in the library staring at the family photograph.
Mateo stood by the fireplace.
"You're thinking too loudly."
She looked up.
"What?"
"You've been staring at Whitmore's face for twenty minutes."
"He told me I'd never walk."
"Maybe he believed it."
"No."
"Elena—"
"He knew."
Mateo didn't argue.
That scared her more.
At ten that morning, Celeste returned from a grocery run.
Rafael was waiting.
"Sit down."
She looked from Rafael to Elena.
Then Mateo.
Her eyes narrowed.
"What happened?"
Elena played the audio.
Celeste closed her eyes.
When it ended, nobody spoke.
Finally Elena said:
"Tell me everything."
Celeste sat.
For the first time in Elena's memory, her aunt looked old.
"Your mother discovered the medication six months before she died."
"What medication?"
"An experimental nerve suppressant."
"The same thing I'm taking?"
"A newer version."
Elena's stomach turned.
"Who gave it to me?"
Celeste looked toward Rafael.
"Samuel."
Dr. Whitmore.
Rafael swore.
"Why?"
"I didn't know."
"That's a lie," Elena said.
Celeste looked at her.
"I knew he was involved. I didn't know why."
"Then why didn't you tell us?"
Celeste's eyes filled.
"Because he threatened Adrian."
Elena frowned.
"Adrian?"
Celeste's son.
Elena's cousin.
He had supposedly moved to Switzerland nine years earlier.
They rarely spoke.
"What does Adrian have to do with this?"
Celeste started crying.
Rafael stood.
"Where is your son?"
Celeste looked at him.
"Not Switzerland."
Silence.
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Elena stared.
Celeste told them the truth.
Nine years earlier, Adrian had worked at Navarro Medical Center as a research assistant.
He discovered Whitmore running unauthorized neurological trials.
When Adrian threatened to expose him, he disappeared.
Celeste received photographs.
Her son bound to a chair.
A message.
Cooperate, or he dies.
"You told us he moved."
"I had no choice."
"For nine years?"
"I kept receiving proof he was alive."
Elena could barely process it.
"What did Whitmore make you do?"
"Monitor the house. Replace documents. Keep quiet."
"And the medication?"
"Your mother found out Samuel had been giving you low doses through migraine medication."
Elena remembered.
She had suffered headaches in her twenties.
Whitmore prescribed drops.
Isabel became suspicious.
Celeste began secretly switching the bottles with harmless substitutes.
"So Mom blamed you because she saw you touching my medicine."
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell her immediately?"
"Because Samuel told me Adrian would die."
Elena felt anger and pity at the same time.
"And after Mom died?"
Celeste looked down.
"I kept protecting you."
"By lying?"
"By switching medication whenever I could."
"Whenever?"
Celeste cried harder.
"Samuel changed methods after your accident."
Elena went cold.
"What methods?"
"Injections at the hospital. Tablets. Your IV."
Mateo stepped forward.
"The hospital medication wasn't controlled by Celeste."
"No."
"Whitmore was increasing the suppressant himself."
Elena's hands shook.
"So my spinal injury might never have been as severe as he said."
Celeste nodded.
"I'm sorry."
Rafael walked toward the window.
"I trusted him for twenty-five years."
Celeste looked at her brother.
"That was why he could do it."
Later that afternoon, police found Whitmore's car abandoned near the river.
No blood.
No body.
His house had been emptied.
Passport gone.
Cash missing.
He had planned to flee.
But the strangest discovery came from his office.
A hidden safe.
Inside were files on Elena.
Not seven months of files.
Seventeen years.
Blood tests.
Genetic reports.
MRI scans.
Hormone panels.
Photographs.
Elena stared at the evidence spread across Rafael's dining table.
"Why would he study me since I was fourteen?"
Nobody knew.
Then Mateo found a page labeled:
SUBJECT E / HEREDITARY RESPONSE PROFILE
He read it twice.
"What?"
Elena asked.
"This isn't about paralysis."
"What is it?"
He showed her.
The document referenced a neurological regeneration study.
Project Aurora.
Rafael reacted instantly.
Mateo noticed.
"You know that name."
Rafael turned away.
"Dad."
"It was your grandfather's research."
Elena frowned.
"My grandfather built hotels."
"He funded medical research too."
"Why?"
Rafael sat.
"Because your mother was sick."
Elena stopped.
"What?"
"Before you were born, Isabel developed a neurological condition. Doctors thought she might lose mobility."
Elena stared.
"You never told me."
"She recovered."
"How?"
Rafael looked at the file.
"Project Aurora."
Mateo whispered:
"They treated her."
"Experimental therapy."
"Successful?"
"In her case."
"Then why shut it down?"
Rafael's jaw tightened.
"Three other patients died."
Silence filled the room.
Elena understood the connection.
"If Mom responded to Aurora..."
Mateo finished:
"They thought you might share the same genetic response."
Elena looked toward Whitmore's seventeen years of records.
"He wasn't studying my paralysis."
"No," Mateo said.
"He was studying whether your body could survive the cure."
Elena felt sick.
That night, Adrian called.
Celeste answered.
Her face went white.
"Adrian?"
Everyone froze.
The line crackled.
A man's weak voice answered.
"Mom."
Celeste collapsed into a chair.
"My God."
"Listen."
She put the call on speaker.
Adrian breathed heavily.
"I got out."
"Where are you?"
"I don't know."
"Are you hurt?"
"Yes."
Elena leaned toward the phone.
"Adrian, it's Elena."
Silence.
Then:
"Elena?"
"Yes."
His voice changed.
Fear.
"Is Whitmore still treating you?"
"No."
"Good."
"Why?"
"Because he didn't cause the accident."
Everyone looked at each other.
Elena whispered:
"Who did?"
Adrian started to answer.
Then a loud sound came through the line.
A door.
Someone shouting.
Adrian gasped.
"He's here."
"Who?"
The line crackled.
"Adrian!"
He whispered one final sentence.
"Ask your father about the car."
The call disconnected.
Every person in the room turned toward Rafael.
Elena stared at her father.
"Why would Adrian say that?"
May you like
Rafael's face had gone completely pale.
And for the first time since the crash, Elena became afraid of him.
