CHAPTER 2: THE DEVICE INSIDE THE CAST
Nathan couldn't stop staring.
The object was attached directly against his skin.
A black rectangular device.
Thin wires wrapped around his calf.
Tiny blinking lights flashed beneath the remaining plaster.
The room erupted into panic.
"What is that?"
"Who installed it?"
"Call security!"
The chief surgeon looked ready to faint.
Nathan grabbed him by the collar.
"ANSWER ME!"
The doctor trembled.
"I... I don't know..."
"Liar!"
Nathan had built billion-dollar companies.
He knew when people were lying.
And right now, half the room looked guilty.
Security rushed in.
The homeless boy was cornered near the wall.
But Nathan surprised everyone.
"Leave him alone."
The guards stopped.
The billionaire pointed at the child.
"Bring him here."
The boy slowly approached.
Nathan looked into his eyes.
"How did you know?"
For several seconds the boy remained silent.
Then he reached into his pocket.
Everyone watched.
He pulled out an old photograph.
Nathan's heart nearly stopped.
The picture showed him.
Standing beside his younger brother, Daniel.
Twenty years earlier.
Before Daniel disappeared.
Before Daniel was officially declared dead.
Nathan's hands began shaking.
"Where did you get this?"
The boy swallowed.
"My mother gave it to me."
Nathan froze.
"What is your mother's name?"
"Emily Carter."
The billionaire went pale.
Emily.
The woman Daniel had loved.
The woman who vanished shortly after Daniel disappeared.
Nathan sat speechless.
It was impossible.
Unless...
The boy continued.
"Before she died, she told me something."
The room fell silent.
"She said if anything ever happened to you, I had to find you."
Nathan felt a knot form in his stomach.
The boy looked directly at the electronic device.
"She said your enemies would hide something on your body."
The billionaire could barely breathe.
"My enemies?"
The child nodded.
Then he said the words that changed everything.
"The people who murdered my father."
Nathan stared at him.
The room spun.
"Your father?"
The boy's eyes filled with tears.
"My father was Daniel Blackwood."
A collective gasp echoed across the room.
Nathan felt the world collapse around him.
Daniel wasn't dead.
Or at least his story wasn't what everyone had believed.
Then one of the hospital administrators suddenly turned and ran for the door.
Security tackled him before he escaped.
A flash drive fell from his pocket.
A detective opened it immediately.
Within minutes, horrifying files appeared on the screen.
Medical records.
Bribery payments.
Fake surgery reports.
Secret transfers.
And one terrifying document.
A contract ordering Nathan's slow poisoning through a device hidden inside his cast.
Someone wanted America's most powerful billionaire dead.
And they had nearly succeeded.
But the biggest shock was yet to come.
The mastermind's name appeared at the bottom of the document.
Nathan looked at it.
Then his face turned white.
May you like
Because it wasn't a stranger.
It was someone from his own family.
