My Heart Keeps Him Alive 1 Chapter 02
The general observation ward was on the third floor of Blackwood Institute.
No soundproof walls. No climate control.
I curled up on the bed, my fingers digging into the sheets, my chest so tight I couldn’t make a sound.
The door slammed open and Julian Morse ran in, his white coat flying open, buttons undone.
He was Nathaniel’s lead physician. The only person in the institute who knew the whole truth.
When he saw the empty spot on my chest where the patch should have been, his face went pale.
“Who told you to remove her biosensor patch?”
Margot was sitting on the couch, flipping through my chart. She didn’t even look up.
“Dr. Morse,” she said. “I’m the interim director of Blackwood Institute.”
She slid a board authorization letter across the table.
“Nathaniel isn’t here. The institute answers to me now.”
Julian didn’t glance at it; he walked straight toward me. “Ivy can’t stay here.”
He reached for a portable sync device. Two guards blocked him.
Julian shouted, “Move!”
Margot stood up.
“You care about her that much?” She smiled. “A woman accused of medical fraud, and you’re protecting her
more than Nathaniel would.”
Julian’s jaw tightened.
He couldn’t say it. Nathaniel’s artificial heart ran on my calibration. That was Croftfield Industries’
highest-level secret.
If it leaked, Nathaniel would become a target for every hostile investor in the market.
He forced the words out, low and strained.
“Her sync cannot be interrupted. If anything happens to her, Mr. Croftfield will die.”
Margot laughed.
“Something happens to Ivy, and Nathaniel is in danger?”
She walked to my bedside and looked down at me.
“You really are something,” she said. “Even Dr. Morse is helping you lie.”
I opened my mouth. The pain in my chest crushed whatever I was going to say.
Julian’s face lost what little color it had left.
“Ms. Sheffield,” he said. “I’m warning you. Stop this now, and I can still fix this.”
“Fix this?” Margot’s smile turned cold. “What needs to be fixed is the money she’s stolen from this institute
over the years.”
She pointed at Julian.
“Take his badge.”
The guards grabbed Julian and started dragging him out.
“Margot! You will regret this!”
Margot didn’t even look at him. She turned to the head of IT.
“The backup sync server on the top floor. Is it still running?”
The IT director’s face went pale. “Ms. Sheffield, you can’t shut that down. It’s connected to Mr. Croftfield’s remote calibration parameters. If you cut that connection-”
“Nathaniel again.” Margot’s gaze sank inch by inch. “Every single one of you uses him to push me around.”
She picked up the radio. “Shut it down.”
The IT director lunged forward. A guard stepped forward and held him back firmly.
A few minutes later, the entire institute went dark for a second.
The monitor by my bed screeched with static. The heart rate line went wild.
I grabbed my chest, arched off the bed, then my body started convulsing violently.
Julian was pinned down outside the door, veins bulging in his forehead.
“Margot! He will die! Nathaniel will actually die!”
Margot stood at my bedside, watching me struggle uncontrollably. She didn’t move.
“Then let him die. I want to see it.”
Her phone rang. An encrypted number. Two words on the screen: Europe.
She answered.
Her assistant’s voice was barely audible, frantic. “Ms. Sheffield! Mr. Croftfield collapsed during the meeting. His artificial heart just entered forced protection mode. Is something happening at the institute…”
For a split second, Margot’s expression flickered.
She looked down at me. I was drenched in cold sweat, my breath coming in shallow gasps.
Then any doubt she had disappeared. The mockery came back.
“That’s quite a full performance.”
The voice on the phone kept shouting. “Ms. Sheffield? Did you hear me?”
She hung up, turned the phone off and dropped it back in her bag.
“Nathaniel has an entire European medical team,” she said. “He doesn’t need a con artist to save his life.”
I lay on the cold, hard bed and listened as my heartbeat faltered, piece by piece.