Chapter 6 - The Price of Treason
Dr. Reeves rattled the door handle violently, his aristocratic composure shattering into wild, unadulterated panic.
"Nathan! Listen to me!" he yelled, turning back with his hands raised in surrender. "It wasn't just me! I was approached by the Moretti family! They paid me to slow-poison your heirs! They wanted to break your spirit, Nathan! They knew if your boys died, you would lose your grip on the syndicate!"
Nathan didn't look surprised. He stepped up to the doctor, his tall, imposing frame blocking out the room's sunlight.
"The Moretti family," Nathan repeated quietly. "So you sold my children's lives to my rivals for a few million dollars and a cut of their enterprise."
"I can give you names! I can give you bank accounts!" Dr. Reeves wept, falling to his knees on the carpet, clutching at the hem of Nathan's trousers. "I have the full records of every payment on a encrypted drive in my car! Please, Nathan! I'm a doctor! I can help them recover! I know the exact chemical antidote to flush the residual toxin from their nervous systems!"
Nathan looked down at the trembling man with absolute disgust.
"Their antidote wasn't in your lab, Malcolm," Nathan said coldly. "It was fresh air, clean water, and a nanny who actually cared enough to look at the room instead of her bank account."
Nathan reached down, grabbed Dr. Reeves by his silk lapels, and hoisted him off the floor with effortless, terrifying strength. He dragged the screaming doctor across the room toward the small service door that led into the attic maintenance shaft—the very shaft where the poison pump had been installed.
"You liked this air so much, Malcolm," Nathan whispered into his ear as Vince opened the service hatch from the inside. "Let's see how much you enjoy breathing it."
Vince grabbed the doctor, hauling him into the enclosed, dark service room.
"Nathan! No! Please! Don't leave me in here!" Dr. Reeves shrieked, his nails scraping against the steel frame of the hatch door. "It's airtight! Nathan!"
"You have six hours of air in there, Malcolm," Nathan said through the small iron grating. "Just like my sons had every single night for two years. Vince will hand you over to the federal authorities at noon—along with your encrypted drive and Mrs. Bennett's confession."
Nathan turned his back on the screaming physician, gesturing for Vince to bolt the heavy iron latch shut.
"Call federal prosecutor Sterling," Nathan instructed Vince as they stepped back out into the main hallway. "Tell him I have a complete RICO indictment package involving the Moretti syndicate, corporate wire fraud, and attempted murder of two minors. Give him everything."
"And the Moretti family, boss?" Vince asked, his eyes gleaming with dark intent. "How do we handle them?"
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Nathan paused at the top of the grand staircase, looking down toward the bright, sunlit hallway that led to the sunroom where his boys were laughing with me.
"The Morettis thought they were dealing with a grieving father," Nathan said softly, a cold, lethal smile touching his lips. "It's time to remind them why I run this state."
