The Poor Boy Brought a Millionaire's Baby Back
CHAPTER 3 — The Price of a Miracle
Dr. Mercer had studied Elias for eighteen months.
Hannah first brought her son to the Evergreen Institute after he revived the drowned girl. She hoped doctors could explain his ability.
Instead, Mercer turned him into an experiment.
He stopped Elias's heart under controlled conditions. He forced him to touch dying animals. He recorded how his body temperature dropped whenever another heartbeat returned.
Hannah eventually discovered Mercer's private contracts.
Several wealthy clients had agreed to pay millions for access to Elias if they suffered cardiac death.
She escaped with her son.
Two months later, Hannah died from leukemia.
Mercer told the court that Elias was abandoned and mentally unstable. The boy was sent into foster care, but he ran away from every placement connected to the institute.
The director of St. Anne's Shelter arrived carrying a journal Hannah had left behind.
It described an ability passed through the women in her family for generations.
Hannah called it the Returning Touch.
It followed three rules.
The death must be recent.
The body must still be capable of life.
And every return must be paid for by the person calling the dead back.
Elias did not give away years of his life.
He gave away memories.
After reviving the drowned girl, he forgot his father's face.
After saving William's baby, he could no longer remember the sound of his mother's laughter.
Hannah's final entry contained a warning.
Never let anyone turn mercy into a business.
William ordered his attorneys to expose Mercer's contracts. Claire promised Elias that no one would force him to use his ability again.
Then alarms erupted inside the baby's room.
Noah's heartbeat was failing for a second time.
Doctors discovered a congenital defect that required immediate surgery. But Noah was too unstable to survive the operation.
Elias approached the incubator.
Claire blocked him.
"You've already given enough."
"If he dies again, the echo may disappear."
"What will it cost you?"
Elias touched the photograph of his mother inside his pocket.
"I don't know."
The monitor became a flat line.
Elias looked at William.
"I can bring your son back once more, but this time I may forget who I am."
