The motorized wheelchair moved before anyone in the grand reception hall understood what was happening.

When Leo woke up, the air was thick with the smell of salt water, diesel fuel, and decaying fish.

He was bound to a heavy wooden chair inside a vast, cavernous warehouse. High above, rain lashed against the corrugated metal roof. A single floodlight hung overhead, casting long, menacing shadows across the concrete floor.

Directly across from him, tied to a similar chair, was a woman.

Her dark hair was streaked with gray, her clothes torn, and her face thin and pale. But her eyes—those bright, fierce blue eyes—were unmistakable.

"Mom..." Leo gasped, his voice barely a whisper.

The woman’s head snapped up. Tears instantly filled her eyes as she looked at her son. "Leo! Oh, God, Leo!"

"Mom!" Leo struggled against the heavy ropes binding his arms. "You're alive! You're really alive!"

"I'm so sorry, my sweet boy," Clara Sterling sobbed, her voice trembling with immense pain and love. "I tried to get back to you... I tried so hard..."

"Reunions are so terribly cliché," Julian’s voice echoed from the shadows.

Julian stepped into the light, holding a thick leather folder and a gold fountain pen. Behind him stood Vance, holding a battered, bloodied Wren by her wrists. She was barely conscious, a deep cut swelling near her eye, but her stubborn glare never left Julian's face.

"Wren!" Leo cried out.

"I'm... I'm okay, Leo..." Wren rasped, spitting a speck of blood onto the floor. "Don't sign... anything..."

Julian walked over to Leo, opening the folder and laying it across Leo's lap.

"Here is the situation, Leo," Julian said smoothly, handing him the pen. "This document officially declares your mother deceased, transfers all guardianship rights to me, and surrenders your majority shares in Sterling Enterprises. You sign it, and I let you and your mother live out your days in a quiet house in South America."

"You're lying," Clara yelled, her voice filled with venom. "You'll kill us both the moment he signs that!"

Julian smiled thinly, turning his pistol toward Wren's head.

"If he doesn't sign it within ten seconds," Julian said calmly, "I put a bullet through this girl's brain. One... two... three..."

"Stop! Stop!" Leo screamed, his heart hammering violently against his ribs. "I'll sign! I'll sign it! Just don't hurt her!"

"Leo, no!" Wren choked out.

Julian sneered, pressing the tip of the pen into Leo's trembling hand. "Wise choice, boy. Now write your name."

Leo looked at the paper, then at Wren, then at his mother.

Deep inside his body, something shifted. The serum Doc had injected into him back at the safehouse had been slowly neutralizing the toxins in his system for hours. A strange, burning heat began to tingle in his toes, moving up through his calves, igniting his dormant nerves like liquid fire.

It was excruciating—a agonizing, white-hot sensation of life returning to dead tissue.