Chapter 9: The Healer's Debt
With the corporate corruption purged, Luca turned his attention to the Hawthorne Children’s Hospital—the core institution his late wife, Clara, had dedicated her life to building.
He visited the oncology wing unannounced, walking the brightly painted corridors without an entourage. In room 402, a young boy named Leo sat drawing pictures of airplanes, his mother sitting tiredly in a chair beside him.
"Mr. Hawthorne?" the mother gasped, recognizing his face from news broadcasts covering his dramatic return. "We heard the grant funding for the trial medication had been canceled..."
Luca smiled warmly, kneeling beside Leo's bed just as he had with Lily. "There was an administrative error, ma'am. The Hawthorne Trust is fully funding the clinical trial for all thirty-two patients in this wing. In fact, we are expanding it."
Leo looked up, offering Luca a crayon drawing of a superhero. "Are you the man who woke up?"
May you like
Luca accepted the drawing with genuine gratitude, his eyes moist. "I'm just a father who remembered what matters most."
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