Chapter 3 - Into the Forgotten Zone
Ignoring her father's desperate pleas for her to stay safe, Elara took her father’s car and drove into the Forgotten Zone. She didn't look like a Sterling anymore; she wore simple clothes, and her walk, though still needing the support of a cane, was purposeful.
She found Julian in a ruined conservatory, surrounded by plants that thrived in the city’s neglect. He wasn't surprised to see her.
"You found me," he said, not turning from a patch of wild jasmine.
"You taught me how to stand," she replied. "Now teach me how to be."
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Julian looked at her then, and she saw the depth of his isolation. He wasn't just a boy; he was a sentinel for a part of the city the Sterlings had ignored for decades. He told her about the children in the Zone—kids who, like her, had been told they were "broken" or "lost" because they didn't fit into the rigid machinery of the city’s elite. He had been "treating" them, not with medicine, but with movement and belief.
As they talked, Elara realized her father’s philanthropy had been a lie. He gave money to charities, but he never looked at the people those charities were meant to serve. Julian had been doing the work Arthur Sterling only pretended to do.
