2026-02-22 14:36:43Joshua leaped to his feet, his heart hammering with a mixture of relief and urgency. Three and a half billion dollars. His mother would be saved. Everything would be okay now.
He sprinted down the hallway toward the hospital's front desk, his worn sneakers squeaking against the polished floor. But as he rounded the corner, the scene before him made his blood turn to ice.
His mother—frail, unconscious, still connected to portable monitors—was being dragged out of her ward by three burly nurses. Her hospital bed rolled roughly across the threshold, the wheels catching and jerking.
"Stop!" Joshua's voice echoed through the corridor. "What the hell are you doing?"
The lead nurse, a heavyset woman named Patricia, didn't even look at him. "We're moving her to discharge, Mr. Hart. You've had plenty of time to arrange payment."
"I have the money!" Joshua shouted, running toward them. "I can pay right now! Stop moving her!"
Patricia finally turned, her expression dripping with contempt. The other two nurses—younger women who seemed to take their cues from her—stopped pushing the bed but wore matching smirks.
"Oh, suddenly you have money?" Patricia crossed her arms over her broad chest. "Let me guess—did a miracle happen in the last twenty minutes? Did your fairy godmother appear?"
"I'm serious. I can pay for the surgery. Right now. Just take her back to the ward—"
"Save it." The younger nurse on the left, whose name tag read 'Jennifer,' rolled her eyes dramatically. "We've heard every sob story and excuse in the book. Poor people like you always think you can string us along with lies."
"I'm not lying!" Joshua's hands clenched into fists at his sides. "I have the money. I can transfer it immediately—"
"Transfer it?" Patricia laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "Oh, this is getting better. So now you're claiming you suddenly have one hundred thousand dollars ready to transfer? What did you do, rob a bank on your way back?"
The third nurse, a thin woman with sharp features named Susan, snickered. "More like he's planning to write us a bad check. We're not falling for it, buddy. We won't treat your mother for free anymore. Hospital policy."
"I'm not asking for free treatment!" Joshua's voice cracked with desperation. "I have the money. Just let me pay—"
"Fine." Patricia's eyes glittered with malicious amusement. She pulled out a portable card reader from her pocket, holding it up like a weapon. "Swipe your card right now. One hundred thousand dollars. Let's see this miracle money of yours."
Joshua's hand instinctively went to his wallet, then froze. His stomach dropped.
The card. Natalie had taken his bank card months ago.
The memory came flooding back—Natalie's cold voice in their bedroom: "As a member of the Cavesh household, you don't need personal property. You'll receive a daily allowance from the family account." An allowance that had never materialized. Not once.
"Well?" Patricia tapped her foot impatiently. "We're waiting. Swipe the card."
"I... I don't have my card with me," Joshua said, his mind racing. "But I can do a mobile transfer. Give me the hospital's account information—"
The three nurses burst into laughter.
"A mobile transfer!" Jennifer slapped her thigh, nearly doubled over with mirth. "Oh my God, that's rich. That's the oldest stalling tactic in the book!"
"He probably doesn't even have a bank account," Susan added, her voice dripping with scorn. "Look at him. Look at those clothes. That's a man who's never seen a thousand dollars in his life, let alone a hundred thousand."
"Please." Joshua pulled out his phone, his hands shaking. "Just listen to me. I received a transfer today. I can show you—"
"Show us?" Patricia's eyes narrowed. "Oh, this I've got to see. What are you going to do, show us some photoshopped bank statement?"
Joshua's fingers trembled as he navigated to his messages. He found the text from Star Bank and thrust the phone toward Patricia. "Look. See? The money just came through."
Patricia snatched the phone from his hand, her eyes scanning the screen. Then she read aloud, her voice mocking: "Your account ending in 7742 has received a wire transfer of three billion, five hundred million dollars." She paused, then burst into the loudest laugh yet. "Are you kidding me with this?"
Jennifer and Susan crowded around to see, both erupting into giggles.
"Thirty-five billion dollars?" Susan wheezed between laughs. "You couldn't even make up a realistic number?"
"This is the most pathetic scam I've ever seen," Jennifer added, wiping tears from her eyes. "Did you make this text message yourself? What app did you use? 'Fake Bank Alert Generator'?"
"It's real!" Joshua shouted, snatching his phone back. "I can prove it. Just give me the hospital's payment account. I'll transfer the money right now—"
"Sure, sure." Patricia pulled out a small notepad, scribbling down an account number with exaggerated slowness. "Here. The hospital's billing account. Go ahead and make your imaginary transfer from your imaginary billions."
Joshua's fingers flew across his phone screen, opening his banking app. But his phone—a battered model he'd owned for five years—lagged, the screen freezing.
"Come on," he muttered, tapping harder. "Come on!"
"What's wrong?" Patricia leaned in with mock concern. "Having technical difficulties with your billionaire phone?"
The nurses laughed again.
"Is this what a billionaire's phone looks like?" Jennifer pointed at the cracked screen, the faded case. "Shouldn't you have the latest model? Or is that another thing you forgot to upgrade with your imaginary fortune?"
Joshua ignored them, his entire focus on the frozen screen. He tapped the payment button again and again, but nothing happened. The app had locked up completely.
"This is pathetic," Susan said, shaking her head. "We're wasting time here. Let's finish moving her to discharge."
"No!" Joshua's voice was raw. He jabbed at his phone frantically. "Just wait. It's loading—"
"Give it up," Patricia said, reaching for his phone. "You're just stalling. We're not idiots—"
The screen suddenly flickered to life.
Joshua's thumb hit the confirmation button with desperate force. For a heart-stopping moment, nothing happened. Then the screen changed.
PAYMENT SUCCESSFUL
Recipient: Mercy General Hospital
Status: COMPLETED
The corridor fell silent. Joshua held up his phone, his hand still shaking, showing the confirmation screen to the three nurses. Patricia's face had gone pale, her mouth hanging open. Jennifer and Susan looked like they'd been slapped.
"There," Joshua said, his voice hoarse. "Payment successful. Now take my mother back to her room and prep her for surgery."
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Chapter 292
Her mother argued that they had only wanted to protect her, but Natalie felt betrayed."Everything we said, everything we pushed for, it was to protect you," her mother said, her voice tight. "You were miserable in that marriage, Natalie. We watched you shrink smaller every year.""Protect me," Natalie repeated bitterly. "Is that what you call it?"She asked why they were suddenly praising a man they had spent years insulting."You spent years calling him unambitious," Natalie said, her voice rising. "Lazy. A burden. Every family dinner, every holiday, someone always found a way to remind me what a disappointment he was. And now suddenly he's brilliant? Now he's exactly the kind of man this family respects?"Her voice broke as she accused them of making her feel as though she had become the foolish one for listening to their advice."I listened to you," Natalie said, her voice cracking. "I trusted you both, and now I'm standing here feeling like the fool for actually doing what you to
Chapter 291
Natalie had recently become much more confident because of Selena's influence. The connections Selena introduced her to were already producing results, and several business discussions that had previously seemed impossible were suddenly moving in Natalie's favor."Another partnership meeting confirmed for next week," her assistant reported, sliding a schedule across her desk. "That's three new opportunities this month alone.""Selena's connections are proving quite valuable," Natalie said, allowing herself a satisfied smile.For the first time since the divorce, she felt that she was finally regaining control of her life. She even began believing that Joshua's success would no longer matter to her because she had found her own way forward. Let him have his headlines, she thought, scrolling through her calendar. I don't need his shadow to build something of my own anymore.That confidence was interrupted when her father summoned her to the executive conference room."Natalie," her fath
Chapter 290
Joshua personally reviewed the evidence recovered from the fake medical team. The men refused to reveal who had hired them, but Monica discovered that their authorization documents had been prepared using information from the same hospital system previously accessed through Adrian Cole."They're not talking," Peter reported, setting a folder on Joshua's desk. "But Monica traced the documents back to the same access point Adrian used before.""Same system, same vulnerability," Monica confirmed. "Someone's been sitting on this access for a while, using it whenever they need it."Joshua ordered Peter to quietly investigate the hospital's internal network while keeping the incident away from the media. "Investigate the network quietly," Joshua said. "No public reports, no statements. I don't want my mother's name anywhere near another headline.""Understood," Peter said. He did not want his mother's name dragged into another public scandal.Meanwhile, Victoria unexpectedly arrived at Josh
Chapter 289 Part 2
"Ms. Sterling, I assure you—" one executive began.Instead of enjoying her difficulties, Joshua unexpectedly stepped in and exposed the executives' fraudulent figures, saving Victoria from signing a disastrous agreement."She's right," Joshua said, stepping forward, drawing surprised glances from everyone in the room, including Victoria. "Your quarterly filing from March shows revenue eighteen percent lower than what you're presenting today. Someone adjusted these numbers before this meeting."The lead executive's face paled. "That's a misunderstanding, Mr. Hart—""It's fraud," Joshua said flatly. "And I'd advise Ms. Sterling not to sign anything until this is properly investigated."Victoria was surprised by Joshua's intervention, especially because helping her could strengthen a rival. She stared at him across the table, her earlier composure momentarily replaced by genuine confusion.She later confronted him about it and discovered that he had not helped her out of kindness."Why d
Chapter 289 Part 1
The hospital director informed Joshua that his mother's medical condition remained stable, but someone had attempted to change one of her medication records again."Mr. Hart," Dr. Reynolds said, his voice tense over the phone, "your mother's condition is stable, but we caught another issue. Someone attempted to alter one of her medication records this afternoon.""Altered how?" Joshua asked, his grip tightening on the phone.The director had stopped the alteration before anything happened, but he warned Joshua that whoever was behind it had access to information from inside the medical system. "We caught it before it went through," Dr. Reynolds said. "But whoever attempted this had legitimate access credentials. This isn't outside interference, Mr. Hart. This is someone with real access inside our system."Joshua immediately connected the incident to the earlier unauthorized access involving Adrian Cole. "This is the same pattern as before," Joshua said quietly. "Adrian Cole's access
Chapter 288
A few days later, Joshua attended a private business meeting concerning a major commercial project his company was preparing to acquire. He expected the negotiations to be routine until a young woman named Victoria Sterling arrived with her own team and calmly announced that her company was competing for the exact same project."Mr. Hart," Victoria said, taking her seat across the table without ceremony, "I hope you weren't expecting an easy afternoon.""I try not to expect anything," Joshua said evenly.Unlike the businessmen who had previously tried to intimidate Joshua, she did not mention Lorenzo, his divorce, or his mysterious reputation. She simply treated him as another businessman standing in her way."Let's begin," Victoria said, opening her own folder without further preamble. "My company's proposal for the Meridian commercial site."The negotiations quickly became tense when Victoria challenged several of Joshua's proposals and exposed weaknesses in the financial structure
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