2026-09-21 23:56:46
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CHAPTER 361 PART 2
“Not poison, medicine.” Preston raised both hands calmly. “Do you think I would feed my own blood a risk? Give me the first dose. I will take it tomorrow in front of you. If I wake up laughing, you take yours.”The old man stared at his grandson for a long time. His eyes grew wet.“You would do that for me?”“I would do anything for this family.” Preston placed a hand over his heart and looked as sincere as a priest at a funeral.Behind that face, a different voice whispered inside his skull. The drug was no trance. It was a slow killer that would stop the old man’s heart or turn his brain to porridge. Sterling Fairbanks had promised him backing and a seat at the top. With Zachary gone, the family fortune, the stocks, and the Love Island store rights would all fall into Preston’s lap like ripe fruit.Zachary dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief. Then he straightened, and the old fire returned to his voice.“No test.” Zachary waved a hand sharply. “I will not let you swallow any needle
CHAPTER 361 PART 1
The Hartford family villa had not smelled this warm in months. Zachary Hartford sat in his leather armchair with a cup of tea steaming in his hands, watching his grandson pace the carpet on a pair of crutches, and his old face glowed like a man who had just found money in a coat he forgot he owned.“Look at you.” Zachary lowered his cup and shook his head with a proud smile. “Thinking. Planning. Six months ago you could not plan which tie to wear.”Preston Hartford stopped walking and gave a humble little bow of his head. His casts were gone, replaced by braces, and his face still showed yellow bruises, but his eyes were sharp.“I was a fool, Grandfather.” Preston lowered his voice like a student confessing to a teacher. “My failures let Quinn climb over us and split the family in half. I will not waste my second chance.”Zachary sighed deeply and patted the armrest. “A boy has to fall before he learns to stand. I always believed you would grow up.”Preston limped to the table and spr
CHAPTER 360 PART 2
Preston hesitated. The hesitation lasted exactly long enough for Zachary to press harder, and not one second longer.“He called you an ungrateful old man.” Preston’s lip trembled and his eyes squeezed shut. “He said you fed him and housed him for three years and he cursed the hand that gave him everything. He said an old man like Zachary Hartford should just lie down and die already because the world has moved past men like you.”Zachary’s face did not move. But something behind his eyes shifted like tectonic plates grinding against each other underground.“He said Quinn carried the Hartford name on her back while you sat in your office pretending to matter.” Preston’s voice cracked on the last word. “He said every business deal you ever made was built on the work of people smarter than you, and that without Quinn propping up the family name, Zachary Hartford would be nothing but a senile old fool counting money he did not earn.”Zachary’s fist hit the hospital room wall.The sound cr
CHAPTER 360 PART 1
Zachary Hartford’s phone was still warm against his ear when he reached for his coat on the hook behind his office door. His secretary looked up from her desk and opened her mouth to ask about the afternoon schedule. The expression on Zachary’s face closed her mouth before a single word came out.“Arrange the car.” Zachary shoved his arm through his coat sleeve and missed twice. “Now. Harmony Hospital. Sixth floor.”“Sir, you have the Northern Energy Group board review at three.” His secretary stood with her tablet clutched against her chest.“Cancel it.” Zachary was already in the elevator. The doors closed on whatever she was about to say next.His driver had never seen Zachary Hartford run. Today Zachary Hartford ran. Across the lobby, through the glass doors, into the back of the sedan with the kind of urgency that only comes from a man who has spent decades building something so that the people he loved would never have to suffer, and has just learned that the building failed.Pr
CHAPTER 359 PART 2
"Zachary Hartford will call Quinn tonight." Preston shifted against his pillows and winced. "She will be here by tomorrow. Alone. No Marcus. No security detail. Just a granddaughter coming to check on her sick grandfather.""Good dog." Sterling examined his nails. "At least you are useful for fetching."Preston's jaw tightened but he let it pass. The insult sat in his chest like a hot stone, but the calculation running behind his eyes told him to swallow it and keep moving."Now fill them in." Sterling gestured at the room. "Everything. From the beginning. I want every person in this room to understand exactly what kind of rat we are dealing with."Preston licked his cracked lips and started from the top. Three years of Marcus Steel in the Hartford household. The cooking. The cleaning. The grocery runs where the maids would walk ahead of him on the sidewalk because being seen beside him was embarrassing. The way Zachary Hartford would make him stand during family dinners because sitti
CHAPTER 359 PART 1
Preston Hartford lay in his hospital bed with both legs in casts, an IV dripping into his left arm, and a phone pressed against his ear. His face was swollen from Marcus Steel's boots but his voice carried the rehearsed warmth of a grandson who had never stopped loving his family."Grandfather." Preston let his voice crack on the second syllable. "I know you are busy. I know the timing is terrible. But I need you to hear me out before you hang up."Zachary Hartford's breathing on the other end was heavy and guarded. The old man had been licking his wounds since the collapsed boardroom meeting with Miguel Abbott, and his patience for Preston's calls had worn through weeks ago."I am in the hospital, Grandfather." Preston stared at the ceiling and squeezed real tears from the corners of his eyes. "Both legs. An IV. I can barely move. And I am not calling about myself. I am calling about Quinn."The breathing on the other end changed."She is in danger." Preston dropped his voice to the
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