PROLOGUE: THE SETUP
(Three days before the accident)
The hotel room smelled of sex and betrayal.
Ashley's manicured finger scrolled through Robin's banking app. The glow of his trust fund balance reflected in her dark pupils—$4,327,891. Clear. Liquid. Transferable.
"Another half-million cleared today," she murmured, her thumb tracing the comma-separated digits like a lover's spine.
Kai Park's whiskey-laced breath warmed her neck as he peered over her shoulder. "Still can't believe how easy this is." His knuckles whitened around the tumbler. "Four years playing the devoted girlfriend. Must be exhausting."
The hotel sheets were still warm when Ashley examined the climbing carabiner in her hands. The metal felt cold under her fingertips as she twisted the locking mechanism **CLINK** to ensure that it would fail under pressure.
Across the room, Kai Park, Robin's best friend since childhood, smirked as he buttoned his shirt. "You're really gonna do it?"
Ashley didn't answer immediately. She carefully tested the modified carabiner one last time before slipping it into her pocket. "Accidents happen in the mountains every day," she said, voice smooth as poisoned honey. "Especially to reckless climbers."
(15 minutes later in another room)
On the balcony, oblivious to the conspiracy unfolding behind him, Robin adjusted his camera, capturing the last sunset he'd ever see with unbroken eyes. The golden light caught his aristocratic profile—the same patrician nose as his father, the same sharp jawline as his mother in her Yale professorship portraits.
"By this time next month," Ashley whispered, pulling up the forged power-of-attorney documents on her tablet, "we'll own everything. The trust. The patents. The pharmaceutical shares."
Kai's gaze drifted to Robin's open backpack. The climbing carabiner glinted under the suite's chandelier. "And if he survives the fall?"
Ashley replied with a sweet yet venomous tone, "Then we'll make sure he doesn't survive the hospital."
Ashley exchanged a glance with Kai. With Kai's quick nod, she slipped her fingers into Robin's backpack, finding his climbing carabiner. With practiced ease, she swapped the climbing carabiner with a modified carabiner.
Kai raised his glass in a silent toast as she slipped it back into the place.
__________
THE FALL
The carabiner snapped with a sound like a gunshot.
For one weightless second, Robin hung in the thin Himalayan air, his fingers grasping at nothing. Then gravity took him.
**CRACK.**
The impact drove the breath from his lungs. White-hot lightning shot up his spine as he skidded across jagged rocks. When he finally came to rest, he couldn't feel his legs.
"Robin! Oh god!" Ashley's scream sounded distant, almost rehearsed.
Through blurred vision, he saw:
• Kai's hiking boot kicking the broken carabiner into a crevasse
• Ashley's diamond bracelet caught the light as she wiped fake tears
• The guides' frantic radio calls fade into the howling wind
Last conscious thought :
They did this.
Then darkness.
__________
THE AFTERMATH
(Present Day - Six Months Later)
The beeping of machines greeted Robin's return to the world.
"Mr. Hayes, can you wiggle your toes for me?"
He tried. Nothing happened.
The doctor's face said everything. "C6 complete spinal injury. You'll retain some arm mobility, but—"
"I'll never walk again." Robin's voice sounded alien to his own ears.
Across the room, his mother stifled a sob. His father's jaw clenched tight enough to crack teeth.
The nurse adjusted his catheter with clinical efficiency. Robin didn't feel it. He didn't feel anything below his collarbones.
Robin went through pain, grief, anger, disbelief, denial, and every other negative emotion, but at last he went NUMB. Something broke inside him, yet not a single tear betrayed his inner turmoil.
______
THE VISITS
Day 3: Ashley arrived smelling of Kai's cologne.
"You look terrible," she said, perching on the edge of his bed like it might contaminate her.
Robin's throat worked. "You came."
"Of course." She flashed that smile—the one that used to make his heart race. Now it made his stomach twist. "We need to talk about the trust fund. The medical bills..."
She placed a document in his limp hand. Power of attorney.
She has taken everything from him, his life, his mother his happiness, yet they are ready to burn him alive again.
Day 7: Kai brought reporters.
"Tragic accident," he told the cameras, arm around Ashley. "Robin was always so reckless."
The #CrippleChallenge trended by noon.
When Kai leaned in for a sympathy hug, Robin glimpsed it—something moving under his skin, like worms made of shadow.
Day 14: His parents stopped coming.
"Bankruptcy hearings," his father muttered, avoiding Robin's eyes.
The Hayes Pharmaceutical collapse made front-page news.
_______
ROCK BOTTOM
The Medicaid nursing home smelled of bleach and despair.
Robin stared at the ceiling, counting water stains. Fourteen. One for each day since his last visitor.
His phone buzzed.
@Ashley: "Beach day with my soulmate! #Blessed"
The photo showed Ashley and Kai in Monaco, toasting with champagne that cost more than Robin's medical bed.
His fingers twitched toward the nightstand. The pills called to him.
Then—
**CRACK.**
The mirror above his dresser split down the middle. Black ooze seeped from the fracture.
"Pathetic," whispered the voice in the dark.
______