Chapter 3 - The Price of a Miracle

"What did you do to yourself?!" Marcus gasped, unlocking the door and pulling the boy inside.
Leo collapsed onto the Persian rug, gasping for air. Sweat mixed with rainwater poured off his forehead. His skin was burning hot, but his limbs were rigid with paralysis.
"Every... every second she stood..." Leo choked out through clenching teeth, "my nervous system... absorbed her injury. It... it dissipates after a few hours. I'm fine."
"Why?" Marcus demanded, kneeling beside the suffering boy, his heart tearing apart with overwhelming guilt. "Why would you do that for a girl you don't even know?"
Leo looked up at Marcus, his eyes full of unbearable pain. "Because four years ago, your wife died saving my life during the raid on my father's lab. She took a bullet meant for me. I promised her before she took her last breath that I would protect Clara."
Marcus froze. The revolver slipped from his fingers and clattered onto the floor.
"You... you were there?"
"The people who attacked the lab... they didn't get the formula," Leo whispered, his breathing slowing down as his body violently fought off the temporary paralysis. "They think it died with my father. But it lives in my blood. And Mr. Vance... those same people were in your ballroom tonight."
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Marcus felt a chill run down his spine. "What are you talking about?"
"The man standing right next to you tonight—your business partner, Richard Sterling," Leo said grimly. "He was the one who ordered the hit four years ago. And tonight... he put something in Clara’s tea."