Bloodline of Retribution: The Disowned Prodigy novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Number

Keir asked for the op note on Sunday morning.

He did not ask me. He asked the anesthesiologist, who owed him a favor and had not slept either.

I walked into the recovery room at eight with two coffees and found him propped on the pillows with the chart on his chest.

He did not look up.

"Left bundle contused," he read aloud. "Two centimeters. Estimated meaningful recovery, one in four."

I put the coffees down on the rolling table.

"Keir."

"Rule three," he said.

"I can explain."

"I'm sure you can." He turned a page. "Go ahead."

"If I had told you one in four in that recovery room, you would have stopped trying."

"That is my decision."

"It's your decision with the right number in your hand."

"Which I asked you for." His voice was still level, and that was the worst of it. "I told you I haven't said I was afraid to anyone in four months. I said it to you because you were the one person who wouldn't flatter me."

"I wasn't flattering you."

"You lied to my face, Lena, with your hand on my foot."

I had no answer for that, because there wasn't one.

"You wrote the rule," he said. "Every number, even the bad ones. I took you at your word. It's the first time I've taken anyone at their word since the Skyway."

"I know."

"So tell me the number, now. The real one."

"One in four. Maybe less, if the swelling comes back."

He closed the chart.

"Thank you," he said, very quietly.

That hurt more than shouting.

"I thought you'd leave," I said. It came out of me before I could stop it. "If I told you the real number, I thought you'd decide I was a bad bet and send me back to Bridgeport."

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