Chapter 7 - THE PRICE OF SURVIVING “The nerve damage is significant.”
Mercer’s words struck harder than Dominic expected.
“Permanent?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Will I walk normally?”
“I believe so.”
“When?”
“Months.”
Dominic looked away.
For most of his life, money solved delays.
Influence moved schedules.
Fear accelerated decisions.
But damaged nerves didn’t care who Dominic Vale was.
Mercer gave him two choices.
Rehabilitation.
Or pretending to be stronger until he permanently made himself weaker.
Dominic chose rehabilitation.
At first, every session felt humiliating.
Then Ellie changed the way he saw it.
When Dominic complained about using a cane, she frowned.
“But you can walk with it.”
“So?”
“So you can walk.”
Dominic stared at her.
Adults had spent months discussing what he couldn’t do.
Ellie noticed what he still could.
Something shifted.
Dominic stopped fighting his body.
He started helping it heal.
Weeks became months.
The mansion changed too.
Dominic removed his father’s enormous portrait from the great room.
In its place, he framed Ellie’s crooked drawing.
Three stick figures.
Clare.
Ellie.
Dominic.
For the first time, something inexpensive became the most important object in the house.
Clare stayed.
Trust grew slowly between them.
Coffee after rehabilitation.
Arguments over Dominic ignoring medical advice.
Late conversations after Ellie fell asleep.
Then laughter.
Dominic hadn’t realized how silent his life had become until Clare and Ellie filled it with noise.
Julian returned gradually too.
Not as Dominic’s lieutenant.
As his brother.
Their relationship remained damaged.
But damage, Dominic was learning, didn’t always mean something had to be discarded.
Sometimes it meant rebuilding differently.
Six months after Ellie first touched the brace, Mercer finally removed it.
Dominic stood at one end of the great room.
Clare waited near the windows.
Julian stood beside Vincent.
Ellie sat on the floor.
“No cane?” Dominic asked.
“Not for this.”
Mercer pointed.
“Walk.”
Dominic took one step.
Then another.
His knee trembled.
He continued.
Five.
Ten.
Fifteen.
Then he reached the windows.
Rain fell over Lake Michigan exactly as it had the night everything began.
Ellie ran toward him.
Then slowed, remembering his leg.
Dominic opened his arms.
She hugged him carefully.
“Better?”
Dominic looked down.
“Better.”
For the first time, he believed it.
But healing his leg was easier than healing the name Dominic Vale had inherited.
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And his next decision would determine whether Ellie grew up inside a home—
Or inside another version of the same fortress.
