Chapter 29 - The Collapse
"No... no, this is impossible!" Arthur roared, trying to push himself out of his chair. But his frail legs gave out, and he collapsed back onto the cushions, his chest heaving violently as the oxygen machine hissed. "Nathan! You cannot let her do this! This is your birthright! The Whitaker bloodline controls billions!"
Nathan looked down at his father with a look of pure, unadulterated pity.
"There is no Whitaker bloodline anymore, Arthur," Nathan said gently. "Brooke is heading to a maximum-security prison for the rest of her natural life. Victoria will be tried for treason and terrorism. And you... you are going to die in a federal medical penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, with nothing to your name but an orange jumpsuit."
"You ungrateful bastard!" Arthur spat, his face turning an alarming shade of crimson. "I made you!"
"No," Nathan said, turning his back on his father and wrapping an arm around my waist. "My wife made me a man. My son made me a father. You just gave me a last name that I am legally renouncing tomorrow."
Two Aegis operators moved in, clamping heavy federal shackles onto Arthur Whitaker's thin wrists and unhooking his private oxygen tank to swap it for a standard prisoner transport unit.
As they dragged the screaming, cursing patriarch toward the rain-drenched terrace, Nathan and I stood in the vast, empty library of Highspire.
The storm outside was reaching its crescendo, the roar of the Atlantic surf vibrating through the limestone foundations. Nathan turned to me, his eyes shining with unshed tears, but for the first time since I had met him, his posture was straight, his spirit unbound.
"It's over," Nathan whispered, resting his forehead against mine. "The ghosts are gone, Elena. All of them."
May you like
"Not yet," I said, looking out through the rain-streaked bay windows toward the dark, churning ocean. "A war like this always leaves embers."
***
