Chapter 10 - The Man Without a Heart
Nathaniel Graves was declared dead at 6:42 in the morning.
The announcement reached the news before the doctors finished covering his body.
Outside the hospital, people gathered behind metal barricades.
Some celebrated.
Some cried.
Some held signs demanding justice for the crimes committed under Graves Holdings.
Others left flowers for the man who had employed half the city and terrified the other half.
I sat between my parents in a private waiting room.
I did not cry at first.
I stared at the pink eviction notice I had kept folded inside my backpack.
Finding it had changed everything.
Without it, Nathaniel would never have recognized our address.
Without it, Victor might never have found us in the lobby.
Without it, my father might still be imprisoned.
And Nathaniel might still be alive.
“It’s my fault,” I whispered.
My mother immediately knelt in front of me.
“No.”
“I brought the wallet.”
“You did the right thing.”
“People got hurt.”
“Because Victor chose to hurt them. Not because you returned something that was not yours.”
My father sat beside me.
“Bad men depend on good people blaming themselves.”
The hospital door opened.
Gideon entered with Dr. Mercer.
The doctor’s shoulder remained bandaged, but she was walking.
She looked toward my parents.
“We need to move.”
My mother frowned.
“Nathaniel just died.”
“No,” Dr. Mercer said. “He didn’t.”
I stared at her.
Gideon closed the blinds.
“The heart monitor was disconnected from Nathaniel’s body before the announcement.”
“Why?” Michael asked.
“Because Victor has people inside the hospital. Nathaniel’s only chance of surviving is for the world to believe he is dead.”
My heart seemed to restart with his.
“He’s alive?”
“In surgery beneath the east wing,” Dr. Mercer said. “Only four doctors know.”
I jumped from the chair.
“I want to see him.”
“You cannot.”
“Why?”
“Because Victor is watching you.”
The federal authorities agreed to participate in the deception.
Nathaniel’s body was supposedly transferred to the city morgue.
Television networks aired long reports about his rise, his alleged crimes, and his death.
Victor released a statement from an undisclosed location.
Nathaniel Graves escaped justice, but Graves Holdings will rebuild without him.
Victor believed he had won.
For the next three days, my family stayed inside an underground medical unit.
Nathaniel slowly recovered.
The stab wounds had damaged his lung but missed his heart.
When I was finally allowed into his room, he opened one eye.
“I heard you ordered me to survive.”
“You listened.”
“I have always respected authority.”
I looked at the armed guards outside.
“No, you haven’t.”
He smiled weakly.
My father entered behind me.
For several seconds, the two men stared at each other.
Nathaniel had once hunted Michael.
Michael had spent years believing Nathaniel allowed Victor to imprison him.
Neither knew how to begin.
Nathaniel spoke first.
“I failed Evelyn.”
“Yes,” my father said.
“I failed Claire.”
“Yes.”
“I failed you.”
Michael’s jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
Nathaniel nodded.
“I cannot undo it.”
“No.”
“But I can help end it.”
My father placed a folder on the bed.
Victor’s exposed financial network had revealed payments to someone listed only as Shepherd.
Shepherd had received more money than any judge, politician, or assassin.
“We believed Victor was the center of the operation,” Michael said. “He isn’t.”
“Who is Shepherd?” Nathaniel asked.
“We don’t know.”
The payments had begun twenty-two years earlier, before Victor controlled Graves Holdings.
Nathaniel examined the dates.
“My father was still alive then.”
Sebastian Graves had built the family empire from a small shipping company. He had died when Nathaniel was twenty-five.
Officially, the cause was a heart attack.
Nathaniel looked toward Dr. Mercer.
“You treated my father.”
“I signed his death certificate.”
“Did he die naturally?”
She did not answer.
Nathaniel’s face darkened.
Dr. Mercer closed the door.
“Sebastian Graves discovered that someone was using his ships for illegal cargo. He planned to go to the authorities.”
“My father never trusted the authorities.”
“He trusted one federal prosecutor.”
“Who?”
Dr. Mercer looked toward me.
“Claire Bennett’s father.”
My mother stared at her.
“My father died when I was sixteen.”
“No,” Dr. Mercer said. “He disappeared when you were sixteen.”
The room went silent.
She opened Michael’s folder and pointed to the oldest payment made to Shepherd.
The date matched the night Sebastian Graves died.
A second payment had been made the day Claire’s father vanished.
A third followed Evelyn’s crash.
Victor had not created the network.
He had inherited it.
“Who gave it to him?” Nathaniel asked.
Dr. Mercer looked toward the hospital television.
A news conference was beginning.
The current Vice President of the United States stepped to the podium.
Jonathan Harrow.
The same surname as Harrow Property Management.
The company that had issued our eviction notice.
The company Victor used to find us.
My mother stood slowly.
Dr. Mercer pointed toward the man on the screen.
“Jonathan Harrow was the federal prosecutor your father trusted.”
Nathaniel stared at the vice president.
“Shepherd.”
Dr. Mercer nodded.
Before anyone could respond, Jonathan Harrow began speaking.
“This nation has suffered under criminal empires for too long. Following the death of Nathaniel Graves, I am announcing a federal initiative to dismantle every remaining organization connected to his family.”
Agents entered the underground medical unit.
They wore legitimate federal uniforms.
Their leader held up a warrant.
“We are taking Claire, Michael, and Ruby Bennett into protective custody.”
Nathaniel reached for the weapon hidden beneath his blanket.
Gideon stopped him.
May you like
The lead agent looked directly at Ruby.
“Vice President Harrow would like to meet his granddaughter.”
