Chapter 45 #2
His eyes narrow to slits of black and silver. “I’m not young, and I don’t know how long I've got. Years, or decades, who knows?”
“Or weeks or months,” I offer. Elizabeth would really not like me saying this, but I can't help myself.
The old man pretends not to hear and continues talking. “I’ve seen many things in my life. I know how ruthless people can be.” He stops when I chortle at that. Does he have any self-awareness? Surely he recognizes in himself how ruthless he's been?
“It wasn’t ridiculous to assume that you or your brothers had something to do with this.”
“But to what end?” I cry. “Why would we have willingly done that to our own systems?” I stand up abruptly, so much pent-up anger fizzing inside me.
“You haven’t seen the things I have,” the old man states, sitting regally in his chair.
“The breaches threatened more than our systems. They threatened confidence.
Confidence in the company. Confidence in me.
I couldn't ignore the possibility that someone was trying to prove I was no longer fit to lead.”
He picks at something on his sleeve again.
I can’t believe my ears. “You don’t know the truth about family. You might be a rich man, but when it comes to things that really matter, you’re broke as fuck.”
He flinches. Maybe at the stage of life he's now in, with his illness making him slow down, there's a chance he's realizing the damage he has caused his family.
I’m still reeling from his revelation. “You hired Elizabeth because you didn’t trust me?”
“I hired her because I don’t trust anyone,” he clarifies. “She did her job, and in doing so, she exposed something else entirely.”
“Someone else entirely,” I correct. “Someone you indirectly created.”
He frowns, not understanding. “How?”
“What Alex did wasn’t commercial sabotage or corporate sabotage. It was personal. He did this because you pulled funding from a hospital unit. There was a research program, and Alex’s niece was being treated through it.”
He dismisses it easily with a wave of his hand. “I don’t know anything about that.”
I stand directly in his line of sight. “I'm telling you now, so listen up. The consequences of your actions affect real people, real lives. People die. People lose their homes. People starve. There are consequences for things we do at this level, sitting in comfort in our ivory towers.”
He shakes his head, disagreeing. “I might have restructured a budget,” he says. “That’s what we do in business. I’m running a business, not a charity. If a facility couldn’t sustain itself without backing and if it was already failing, I’m not going to put more money into it.”
I grit my teeth together. It's so easy for him to deflect any hint of blame away from him. “What to you might have been a budget line, to her it was survival.”
“That is most unfortunate.”
His casual dismissal infuriates me. “That’s all you have to say? It's unfortunate?”
“What would you prefer?” he asks calmly. “Regret? Apologies? Tears? These things don’t change outcomes.”
“They might change how you deal with things going forward.”
He has no empathy. No sympathy. No soul. I stare at a wall and consider putting my fist through it. Then I force myself to take a few breaths.
“You’ve been spending too much time, boy, with people who believe feelings alter facts.”
“And you’ve spent too long pretending things don’t matter at all.” I pause for a few seconds, then hit him with it. “There was something else I needed to tell you. I’ve decided not to go through with the surgery.”
This gets a reaction. The old man’s fingers tighten against the armrest. “You can’t do that.”
“I can do whatever I want. It’s my fucking kidney.”
“I see,” he says, knowing that I hold the cards.
“I will not give you my kidney,” I continue, each word deliberate, “unless …”
He watches me intently. “Unless?”
“Unless you reinstate funding for the program at the hospital, or do something equivalent to help Alex's niece. Fund her treatment. Fund research. Put right your wrong.”
His brows push together as he stares at me in disbelief. “But it was purely business.”
“It was fucking personal for Alex’s niece.” The man is an utter asshole. “Think about my offer, or don’t. Your choice.”
His gaze hardens. “You’re attempting to negotiate with me?”
“I have the advantage. Besides, I learned from the best, and I’m setting a condition.”
“You don’t have that kind of leverage.”
I snicker. “I hold your health in my hands.”
He watches me like I’m someone he doesn't recognize, or fully understand. “You would let me die over this?”
I'm disgusted that he's fighting an option that is easy for him to take. The man is worth billions, and it’s killing him to let a little girl live. Mama’s words and images of my time with her flash through my mind. Her voice, her hands, the way she looked at me when I left.
Do the right thing and don’t let it haunt you.
I miss her with all my heart, and close my eyes for a fraction of a second.
“No,” I say finally, opening them again.
“I won’t let you die, because I’m not like you, and that’s a blessing.
It’s something I’m grateful for every single day.
” I clench my jaw, despising him even more with every passing second.
“While I won’t let you die, I’m not going to pretend that what you do doesn’t have consequences anymore. ”
“Which means?”
“Fix this. Fix it so that people like Alex’s niece don’t lose out because of a decision we made.”
“And in return?” he asks.
“You get to live.”