2026-02-18 23:05:59
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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
CHAPTER 358
Lucas Davis did not speak. He walked beside Marcus in silence and understood that some promises do not need a response.At Harmony Hospital in Five River Province, the fluorescent lights buzzed in a private room on the third floor. Preston Hartford lay in the bed with his face swollen and purple, an IV in his arm, and the expression of a man who had been used as furniture by someone who did not consider him worth the effort of real violence.Sterling Fairbanks sat in the chair beside him. His suit was fresh. His hair was combed. The knees of his earlier pants had been discarded and replaced. The only evidence of Drunken Gold was the faint bruise on his pride that no amount of dry cleaning would remove.“I apologize for the kick earlier.” Sterling crossed his legs and examined his cufflinks. “It was not personal. You were simply the nearest available surface.”“Of course.” Preston’s lips barely moved through the swelling. His eyes carried gratitude layered over resentment layered over
CHAPTER 357
“The Third Regiment handles infiltration and rapid long distance operations.” Marcus started walking again.“They can enter any location without being detected. Any location. Including intelligence networks I designed myself. I built those networks with my own hands across every major city, and the Third Regiment can walk through them like they do not exist.”“Because you built them to do exactly that.” Lucas’s expression carried the specific discomfort of a man realizing the weapon pointed at him was forged by the person standing next to him.“The Third Battalion of that regiment is unaccounted for.” Marcus’s words landed flat and heavy. “They are here. In Five River Province. Operating under a classified mission order that came from inside the Alliance’s command structure. And I did not give that order.”Lucas was quiet for a long time. Their footsteps filled the silence.“The Fourth Regiment carries out the Young Master’s direct orders.” Marcus continued in the tone of a man buildi
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