Bloodline of Retribution: The Disowned Prodigy novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: Pre-Op

The Kincaid compound had a clinic wing that nobody used, with a surgical suite Keir's father had built for the family's private injuries.

By Wednesday night it was mine.

I had a surgical team of five, an anesthesiologist who owed Keir a favor, and a scan on the lightbox that finally said what I wanted it to say.

I stood in front of it in scrubs at ten o'clock and read it one more time.

"Is it good?" Keir asked from the doorway.

He had come in without a sound.

"It's clean." I turned. "The cord is whole at T11. The bone fragment is pressing on the left side, and I can lift it out."

"And then?"

"And then we find out."

He wheeled in and stopped beside me.

In the cold light, with his hair damp from a shower, he looked younger than thirty.

"You wrote the rule about numbers," he said.

"I know."

"Give me the number."

"About half of patients with an injury like yours get back meaningful movement."

"Half."

"I won't make it better than it is. About one in ten gets nothing at all, and nobody gets worse than they are now."

He nodded slowly, with his eyes on the scan.

"I'm afraid, Lena."

"I know."

"I haven't said that aloud to anyone in four months."

"You said it to me."

"You're the only person I can say it to." He looked at me, and his voice was low. "If it doesn't work, I'll still be in this chair, and I'll have hoped for it. I don't know if I can survive hoping."

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