My Heart Keeps Him Alive 1 Chapter 05
The atrium went dead silent.
Margot looked down at Nathaniel, who had collapsed before her. The color drained from her face.
“Nathaniel?”
She bent down and barely touched his shoulder before his assistant shoved her away.
“Don’t touch Mr. Croftfield!”
The assistant was still in his flight clothes, eyes bloodshot, like he had sprinted straight from the airport.
Several doctors rushed into the atrium and lifted Nathaniel onto a gurney.
But the moment the cardiac monitor connected, the screen went into full alarm.
[Artificial heart calibration failed.]
[Base frequency source lost.]
[Shutdown risk: 97%.]
Margot’s voice turned shrill. “Save him! What are you all waiting for? If Nathaniel dies, every single one of
you will answer to me.”
Julian finally broke free from the guards and lunged to my side.
Blood was still running from below my collarbone. The sync chip lay in a steel tray, covered in red.
Julian’s hands were shaking. “Save Ivy first.”
Margot spun around. “What did you say?”
Julian didn’t look at her. He shouted at the nurses. “Reattach the chip! Restore base frequency reading now!”
“Julian!” Margot was almost screaming now. “Nathaniel is dying and you want to save this con artist first?”
Julian raised his head and looked at her with an expression that could have killed.
“If she dies, Nathaniel dies too.”
Margot froze.
The assistant bent over Nathaniel’s bed. His voice cracked. “It’s true.”
He pulled up the medical records from the private jet and projected them onto the atrium screen.
The first clip showed Nathaniel collapsing in the European conference room. The timestamp matched
exactly with the moment Margot cut the institute’s servers.
The second clip showed Nathaniel’s first cardiac arrest on the jet. Timestamp matched when I was injected with the stimulant.
The third clip was from moments ago. The moment the scalpel cut into my collarbone, Nathaniel’s artificial heart went straight into shutdown warning.
Every timestamp. Perfect match.
No one in the atrium said a word.
The nurses who had lied earlier were all pale as ghosts.
Margot’s lips trembled. “That’s impossible. That’s just coincidence.”
The assistant looked up, his eyes wild.
“Mr. Croftfield woke up once on the plane.”
“He said Ivy was in trouble.”
“He said anyone who tried to stop him from coming back would never set foot in Croftfield Industries again.”
Margot staggered backward. “No… he wouldn’t do that for her…”
The elevator doors opened before she could finish.
Someone helped the elderly Chairwoman of Croftfield Industries into the atrium.
Eleanor Croftfield was in her seventies, white haired, leaning on a cane.
She looked at the blood on the floor, then at me, unconscious, then at Nathaniel, barely alive, and finally at
Margot.
Her usually gentle face turned grim. “What happened here?”
No one dared to answer.
Julian pleaded, his voice breaking. “Chairwoman, we have to restore Ivy’s base frequency immediately.”
“The chip was ripped out. Her heart rate is crashing. Mr. Croftfield’s artificial heart won’t last much longer
without the calibration source.”
Eleanor gripped her cane hard. “Explain clearly.”
Julian closed his eyes. “The only way to save Mr. Croftfield right now is to save Ivy first.”
Margot shrieked. “Chairwoman! Don’t listen to him! Nathaniel is the one in charge of Croftfield. Ivy is just a nobody with no background.”
Eleanor turned to look at her slowly.
Margot’s voice died in her throat.
That look was cold, cold enough for her to finally realize she might have just destroyed everything
On the gurney, Nathaniel’s artificial heart alarms grew faster and more urgent.
I lay on another bed, my face nearly as pale as paper.
The Chairwoman was quiet for a few seconds. Then she spoke. “Save Ivy first.”
Margot’s eyes went wide with disbelief.
Eleanor said each word clearly. “If she dies, Nathaniel dies too.”