My Heart Keeps Him Alive 1 Chapter 09
I slept for three full days.
When I woke up, the top floor monitoring room was so quiet it seemed forgotten.
The climate control system was running again. The curtains were half drawn. Sunlight filtered through into soft gold.
I moved my fingers.
My hand ached from the IV needle.
Below my collarbone hurt worse, like someone had carved a piece of me out.
I turned my head and saw Nathaniel sitting by the bed.
There were dark circles under his eyes. His face looked almost as bad as mine. Under his shirt, I could still
vaguely see the marks left by the electrodes.
When he saw I was awake, he froze for a moment.
Then he reached over and pressed the call button.
“Does it hurt?” His voice was raw.
I tried to say no, but the moment I opened my mouth, the skin below my collarbone tightened and went
numb.
Nathaniel lifted his hand and gently pressed it against my lips. “Don’t push it.”
The doctor came in quickly, confirmed I was stable for now, and the room went quiet again.
Chloe came in with red eyes to change my bandages.
As she worked, she quietly told me everything that happened after I passed out.
Margot was in criminal custody. Harrison had been taken by financial police.
Sheffield Medical Group stock was crashing, regulators had taken over, and the nurses and lawyers who gave
false testimony were all being held accountable.
Blackwood Institute was undergoing a full internal audit.
Her voice was full of satisfaction.
But as I listened, I didn’t feel the relief I expected. I just felt tired. So tired.
After Chloe left, Nathaniel brought a glass of water to my lips.
I didn’t drink.
I looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the sky and said quietly, “Nathaniel.”
His fingers paused.
“I want to leave.”
The room went completely still, so still I could hear the faint mechanical hum of his artificial heart.
I looked down at the sync device they had reattached to my chest.
“I don’t want to be someone’s life support equipment anymore. And I don’t want the next person who hates
you to decide whether I deserve to live.”
Nathaniel didn’t speak for a long time.
I thought he would get angry, or do what he used to do, stay silent until I gave up and stayed.
But he just slowly put the water glass back on the nightstand.
Then he picked up a document from beside him and handed it to me.
“This is the new agreement for the Blackwood Institute program.”
I didn’t take it.
He placed it on the bed next to my hand. His voice was low.
“Starting today, you have veto power. Any synchronization, monitoring, or treatment requires your personal
signature.”
“The sync device will be replaced with a removable model. If you don’t want to continue, you can terminate at
any time.”
I finally turned my head to look at him. “If I terminate, what happens to you?”
Nathaniel looked at me. His eyes were quiet. “Get a transplant.”
I tried to smile. “What if that’s not possible?”
He smiled too, just barely, almost invisible. “Then I wait.”
My chest tightened.
He reached out like he wanted to touch my hair. But his hand stopped in midair.
Finally, he just pulled it back.
“Ivy. I want you to stay because I want to live. But I can’t take away your choices just because I want to live.”
His voice dropped so low it almost disappeared into the air.
“I was wrong before. I thought hiding you in the safest room in this institute was protecting you. I forgot to
ask if that was what you wanted.”
I looked at his chest. The wound there had started bleeding again because he had forced himself to stay awake and handle everything the past few days.
He needed me to stay more than anyone. But for the first time, he was handing me the key to leave.
I looked down at the agreement.
The most visible thing on the paper wasn’t the Croftfield seal.
It was my name. Ivy Brennan.
Not a base frequency source. Not a special patient. Just Ivy Brennan.