Chapter 1 - The Spark
For eleven long years, Marcus Hale believed his legs were nothing more than dead weight.
He sat in his custom titanium wheelchair, staring blindly at the beautiful water fountain in Central Park.
His bank accounts held nearly four hundred million dollars in settlement money from a tragic car crash.
He thought he was simply the unlucky victim of a terrible tragedy that had stolen his mobility forever.
His massive security detail always stood exactly ten feet away, supposedly protecting him from the dangerous world.
Then a strange, scruffy boy who looked about ten years old slipped right past the highly trained guards.
The boy walked directly up to Marcus, his bright green eyes filled with a desperate, knowing intensity.
He reached out a dirty hand, pressed a very specific nerve spot on Marcus's right knee, and said one word.
"Try."
A sharp, electric shock of pure pain shot entirely up Marcus's spine, followed by a sensation he had not felt in over a decade.
His thigh muscles twitched wildly.
Marcus gripped the armrests of his chair, his breath catching in his throat as he pushed downward.
His legs shook violently beneath him.
He stood up.
The world spun around him, but his feet remained planted firmly on the concrete pathway.
In that exact, earth-shattering moment, he realized his entire life was a carefully constructed lie.
Before he could even speak to the boy, the heavy click of a gun being cocked echoed right behind his ear.
He turned his head slowly, expecting his lead bodyguard to be protecting him from a potential threat.
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Instead, his trusted head of security was pointing a suppressed pistol directly at Marcus's chest.
"Sit back down in the chair, Mr. Hale, or I will put a bullet in your spine and make it permanent," the guard whispered coldly.
