Lucas slept for four hours. This time, it was a natural sleep, the restorative kind.

Mia paced the room. She had a dilemma. If she called the doctors now, the news of his awakening would spread. Julian would know. Katherine would know. The chaos would return.

But keeping a conscious patient hidden was dangerous.

She decided to wait. He needed to be stronger before he faced the sharks.

Around noon, Lucas stirred. He tried to sit up, but his core muscles failed him. He fell back with a groan of frustration.

Mia walked over. "Don't force it. Your muscles have been inactive for ninety days."

Lucas looked at her. The memory of choking her returned. He saw the faint red marks on her neck. He didn't apologize.

"Phone," he demanded. "I need my lawyer."

"No," Mia said calmly.

Lucas glared. "Excuse me?"

"You're legally incapacitated. If you call a lawyer now, the Board will freeze everything until a medical tribunal clears you. That takes weeks. In those weeks, Julian will liquidate the assets he's been targeting."

Lucas stopped. He processed this. His intelligence was intact.

"How do you know about Julian's targets?"

"I have ears," Mia said. "And your cousin is loud when he's drunk."

There was a knock at the door.

"Mrs. Kensington?" It was Ms. Ellis, the head housekeeper. "I'm coming in to sponge bath the Master."

Lucas's eyes widened in horror. He was naked under the sheets, weak, and helpless. The indignity of being bathed by a servant while conscious was unbearable to him.

"No!" Mia called out. "I mean... I'll do it. I'm already doing it. Leave the water outside."

"But Madam, it's my job..."

"I said leave it!" Mia injected a tone of imperious entitlement into her voice.

Ms. Ellis grumbled, but the sound of the basin being set down followed. Footsteps retreated.

Mia opened the door, grabbed the basin and towels, and locked it again.

She turned to Lucas. He looked like he wanted to murder someone.

"Don't look at me like that," Mia said, dipping a cloth into the warm water. "Would you prefer Ms. Ellis and her gossip circle knowing you're awake?"

Lucas grit his teeth. He turned his head away, staring at the wall. "Just get it over with."

Mia wrung out the cloth. She pulled the sheet down to his waist.

The air in the room shifted. It became thick, charged.

She wiped his chest. His skin was hot. Her fingers brushed against his pectorals.

Lucas flinched. His muscles rippled under her touch.

"Relax," Mia murmured. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"I don't like being touched," Lucas said tightly.

"I noticed." She moved the cloth down his abdomen. The definition of his abs was still visible, though softer than before.

Mia felt a strange heat in her own cheeks. She was a doctor. She had seen hundreds of naked bodies. But this was different. This was intimate.

Lucas was breathing harder. He wasn't just angry; he was reacting. His body was betraying him.

Mia quickly finished his upper body and covered him. "I'll do your legs."

She moved to the foot of the bed.

"Why?" Lucas asked suddenly.

Mia looked up, her hands on his shin. "Why what?"

"Why save me? Why protect me from Julian? You're a Sterling. You should be helping them pick my bones."

Mia paused. She thought of the photo in her sleeve. The baby with the crescent birthmark.

"Let's just say," Mia said, looking him in the eye, "I have a vested interest in the Kensington stock price remaining high."

Lucas studied her. He didn't believe her. "Everyone has a price, Mia. I'll find out yours."

"I'm sure you will." She finished drying his feet. "But until then, we're roommates."

Two days passed. Lucas was regaining strength rapidly. He could sit up and hold a cup. He spent his waking hours reading files Mia had surreptitiously downloaded from Julian's cloud account using the stolen phone. His rage grew with every page.

"He's trying to sell the robotics division," Lucas growled, throwing the phone onto the bed. "I need a secure terminal."

"I'll get it," Mia said. "But I need fresh air."

She left him fuming and walked out into the garden.

The estate was vast. She walked toward the pool house, needing to escape the suffocating atmosphere of the sickroom.

She saw a commotion by the deep end of the Olympic-sized pool.

Three nannies were standing in a circle, looking at their phones and laughing.

A few yards away, a small boy sat on the edge of the pool.

Mia stopped. It was the boy from the photo. Or... no, this boy was older. Four or five. But the back of his neck...

She squinted. He was wearing a high-collared neoprene rash guard that covered his neck completely.

The boy was rocking back and forth. He was staring at the water, mesmerized by the ripples.

"Leo! Get back from there!" one nanny yelled, not looking up from her phone. "Stop being a creep!"

Leo didn't react. He leaned forward. Further. Further.

Gravity took over. He tipped silently into the water.

Splash.

He didn't surface. He didn't thrash. He just sank, like a stone.

The nannies screamed. "Oh god! He fell in!"

"I can't swim!" one yelled.

"Call security!"

Mia kicked off her heels. She didn't think. She sprinted across the lawn.

She dove.

The water was freezing. She opened her eyes, the chlorine stinging.

She saw him. A small bundle of clothes on the bottom of the pool. He was curled in a fetal position, eyes closed, accepting his fate.

Mia grabbed him. She kicked hard, propelling them to the surface.

She broke the water, gasping. She hauled Leo onto the tiles and scrambled out.

He was blue. Silent.

"Call Dr. Hamilton! Now!" Mia screamed at the useless nannies. "Get the medical team!"

She started compressions. Her hands, usually so steady for surgery, were trembling.

One, two, three, four...

"Come on, Leo. Come on."

She tilted his head back, pinched his nose, and breathed into his mouth.

His chest rose. Fell.

Nothing.

"Don't you dare die on me," she growled. Compress. Compress. Compress.

Mia's eyes darted to his neck. She reached for the zipper of his rash guard, desperate to loosen it for air, and perhaps to see the skin underneath.

Before she could pull the zipper down, water erupted from Leo's mouth. He gagged, choked, and let out a high, thin wail.

Mia collapsed back on her heels, tears streaming down her face. She pulled the soaking wet, coughing child into her arms.

"I've got you. I've got you."

Leo was shaking violently. He pushed against her chest, terrified. He hated touch. He hated strangers.

But then he looked at her face. He smelled the scent of her skin-no perfume, just soap and rain.

He stopped pushing. His small hands grabbed the wet fabric of her dress. He buried his face in her neck.

Katherine came running from the house, followed by Alfred.

"Leo!" Katherine shrieked. She reached for him. "Give him to me!"

Leo screamed. A sound of pure terror. He clung to Mia harder, wrapping his legs around her waist.

"No!" he rasped. His voice was rusty from disuse.

Katherine froze. "He... he spoke?"

Leo looked up at Mia. His eyes were wide, dark, and filled with a desperate, crushing recognition.

"Mommy?" he whispered.

The word hung in the air, heavier than the storm clouds.

Mia's heart stopped. She knew, logically, she wasn't his mother. Her baby was... somewhere else.

But looking into this broken, lonely child's eyes, something inside her shattered.

She smoothed his wet hair back. She didn't correct him.

"I'm here," she whispered. "Mommy's here."

The main salon was silent. Katherine sat on the velvet sofa, looking older than Mia had ever seen her.

Mia sat opposite, Leo still clinging to her like a limpet. He refused to let go, refused to look at anyone else.

"He hasn't spoken in two years," Katherine said, her voice trembling. "Not since the... incident with the kidnappers. His mother, Vivian... she's in Paris. She rarely calls."

Mia stroked Leo's back. He was asleep now, exhausted, his thumb in his mouth.

"He thinks you're her," Katherine said. She looked at Mia with a strange mixture of awe and suspicion. "Or maybe... maybe he sees something in you that we don't."

Katherine stood up. She walked over and placed a hand on Mia's shoulder. It wasn't gentle; it was a grip of iron necessity.

"You are useful," Katherine said, her voice hard and desperate. "You fixed Lucas's heart rate. You saved Leo. I don't care who you are or what crimes you committed. You will fix my family. If you fail, I will destroy you. But if you succeed... you'll have anything you want."

Mia nodded. "I'll handle Lucas."

She carried Leo upstairs. She put him in the small bed in the nursery, waiting until he was deeply asleep before untangling his fingers from her dress.

She walked back to Lucas's room.

He was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding the walker. He was trying to stand, sweat dripping from his nose. His legs were shaking uncontrollably.

"Dammit!" He slammed his hand against the mattress.

"You're rushing it," Mia said, closing the door.

Lucas looked up. "I heard about Leo. Is he okay?"

"He's sleeping. He almost drowned because your staff is incompetent."

Lucas's face darkened. "They're fired. All of them."

"Good. But that doesn't fix your legs."

Mia walked to the bedside table. She pulled the silver wires from her sleeve.

Lucas stared at them. "What is that?"

"Acupuncture."

"I don't believe in magic."

"It's not magic. It's neuro-stimulation. I'm going to bridge the signal gap in your spinal nerves using directed micro-trauma. It will hurt like hell, but you'll walk by tomorrow."

Lucas looked at the wires, then at her. "Where did a Sterling learn this?"

"I worked in an unlicensed clinic in the favelas of Rio for two years," Mia lied smoothly. "We didn't have MRI machines. We had to improvise."

Lucas hesitated. He looked at his useless legs. He looked at the clock. He had less than 24 hours before Julian made his move. The lie sounded plausible enough for a desperate runaway, which the report said she was.

He turned around, exposing his back. "Do it."

Mia didn't hesitate. She worked quickly, inserting the wires along his spine, focusing on the lumbar region.

Lucas groaned, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the sheets.

"Breathe," Mia commanded. She flicked the wires.

His back muscles spasmed. A groan was torn from his throat.

"It feels like fire," he gritted out.

"That's the nerves waking up. Endure it."

For thirty minutes, she worked on him. It was intimate, brutal, and effective.

When she removed the last wire, Lucas slumped forward, panting.

"Try to stand," she said.

Lucas placed his feet on the floor. He pushed up.

His legs held. They shook, but they held.

He stood to his full height-six foot three. He towered over Mia.

He looked down at her, his eyes wide with shock. He took a step. Then another.

He turned to face her. The distance between them was negligible. Mia could feel the heat radiating from his bare chest.

"Who are you really, Mia?" he whispered. "Rio didn't teach you this."

Mia stepped back, her expression guarding her secrets. "You'd be amazed what you can learn when you have nothing else to lose."