Chapter 13
I moved council back that afternoon.
Same floor.
Same corridor.
No ceremony.
Edwin opened the old doors and dusted the table.
The chair at the head had never moved.
My wheelchair fit beneath it easily.
That irritated Grant when he saw it.
“You’re making a point.”
“Yes.”
Lucia looked around the room.
“You’ll exhaust yourself.”
“Then I’ll rest.”
“You can’t run meetings like that.”
“Watch me.”
That was the mistake both of them made.
They believed admitting limitation meant surrendering authority.
I had believed that too.
That was why their plan worked as long as it did.
The first meeting lasted forty-five minutes.
Then my leg began trembling.
I stopped.
Dr. Hart had told me to respect warning signs.
So I did.
“We continue tomorrow.”
No embarrassment.
No apology.
No hidden pain.
Paolo stood.
“So that’s it?”
I looked at him.
“For today.”
He nodded.
That was all.
Nobody muttered about weakness.
Nobody asked for Lucia.
Nobody suggested a council.
The room simply ended because the boss needed rest.
It was almost insulting how easy the truth was once I stopped helping the lie.
After the men left, Grant laughed softly.
“You think they’ll accept this forever?”
“No.”
That surprised him.
“Then?”
“If I cannot lead later, we deal with later.”
I looked at Lucia.
“But you don’t get to manufacture later early.”
Silence.
That was the line neither of them had prepared for.
May you like
Because their entire plan depended on making temporary weakness feel permanent.
Once I refused that premise, the rest became ordinary succession anxiety instead of destiny.
