Chapter 9 - The Thing He Said While Bleeding
“Stay with me.”
Caitlyn pressed both hands against Damian’s wound.
His face had gone pale.
“Damian.”
His eyes opened.
“You’re shouting.”
“You’ve been shot.”
“I noticed.”
“This isn’t funny.”
“I wasn’t joking.”
She almost laughed and cried simultaneously.
Vincent reached them.
“Ambulance is three minutes out.”
Damian grabbed his sleeve.
“Vale?”
“Gone.”
“Ledger?”
“Gone.”
Damian closed his eyes.
Caitlyn leaned closer.
“Don’t you dare.”
His eyes opened again.
“You’re very demanding for someone I fired.”
Her tears fell onto his shirt.
“You can fire me again tomorrow.”
“Planning to come back?”
“Yes.”
The answer came too quickly.
Damian looked at her.
Something changed between them.
“Good,” he whispered.
Then he lost consciousness.
The bullet had missed his heart by less than an inch.
Caitlyn remained at the hospital all night.
At dawn Evelyn found her asleep beside Damian’s bed, her hand around his.
She did not wake her.
Neither did Vincent.
When Damian opened his eyes several hours later, Caitlyn was still there.
“You did it again.”
She blinked awake.
“What?”
“Fell asleep too close to me.”
She laughed softly.
“Are you going to have me removed?”
“No.”
His fingers tightened around hers.
“Probably not.”
The tenderness lasted exactly forty seconds.
Then Vincent entered.
“We have a problem.”
Damian sighed.
“Of course we do.”
“The ledger Vale stole was a copy.”
Caitlyn looked up.
“What?”
Vincent smiled.
“Noah switched it.”
Everyone turned toward the wheelchair near the window.
Noah managed a crooked grin.
“Learned… from Dad.”
For the first time in years, Caitlyn heard her brother laugh.
The real ledger was safe.
More importantly, Marco had placed a tracker inside the false ledger.
Vale had carried it directly to a private estate in Connecticut.
Registered owner:
Alexander Hale.
A dead businessman.
Damian looked at the photograph.
“That’s him.”
“Anthony?” Caitlyn asked.
“Yes.”
They finally knew where Damian’s father was hiding.
But Damian could not leave the hospital.
Caitlyn expected him to fight that reality.
Instead he called a federal prosecutor.
Vincent looked shocked.
“You’re bringing the government in?”
“Yes.”
“That exposes everything.”
“Yes.”
“Even us.”
Damian looked at Caitlyn.
“That’s the point.”
For years he had maintained control by keeping his legitimate empire and criminal history balanced in separate worlds.
Now he made a choice.
He would testify.
He would surrender financial records.
He would accept investigation into his own organization.
Caitlyn stared at him.
“You could lose Hamilton Holdings.”
“Yes.”
“Your money.”
“Some of it.”
“Your reputation.”
He almost smiled.
“That was never particularly clean.”
“Why?”
Damian looked toward Noah.
Then her.
“Because I’m tired of making people I care about pay for the world I inherited.”
Caitlyn’s heart stopped on two words.
People I care about.
He noticed.
Neither spoke.
Then Vincent cleared his throat.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear anything emotionally significant.”
Damian threw a pillow at him.
Vincent laughed.
For one strange moment, the hospital room felt almost normal.
Then Marco’s phone rang.
His expression changed.
He answered.
Listened.
And slowly lowered the phone.
“What?”
Damian asked.
Marco looked at Caitlyn.
“The federal team reached Anthony’s estate.”
“And?”
“It was empty.”
Damian’s eyes narrowed.
Marco continued.
“There was one thing waiting inside.”
“What?”
“A photograph.”
Caitlyn’s stomach tightened.
“Of who?”
Marco turned the phone around.
The photograph showed Evelyn Hamilton.
Bound to a chair.
A newspaper from that morning rested in her lap.
Damian looked toward the doorway.
His mother, who had been standing there minutes earlier, was gone.
May you like
And beneath the photograph was a message.
BRING ME MY SON.
