Chapter 8 - Dinner with the Most Dangerous Man in America
Nathaniel did not take us to a restaurant.
He took us to the top floor of Graves Tower.
His apartment occupied nearly the entire level.
The windows showed the city beneath us like thousands of tiny stars.
I had never seen anything so beautiful.
My mother looked miserable.
“You still live here.”
Nathaniel removed his jacket.
“Security.”
“You used to hate high floors.”
“I learned to hate being easy to reach more.”
A doctor treated my mother’s bruises.
Another cleaned Nathaniel’s cut.
I sat at a dining table large enough for twenty people.
Then a chef asked what I wanted.
“Grilled cheese.”
The man blinked.
Nathaniel nodded.
“Grilled cheese.”
“And tomato soup.”
“Tomato soup.”
“And chocolate milk.”
Nathaniel looked toward the chef.
“You heard the boss.”
I smiled.
My mother did not.
After dinner, she sent me to a guest room.
I pretended to sleep.
Then I opened the door slightly.
Their voices carried down the hallway.
“You cannot keep us here.”
Nathaniel sounded calm.
“Calder wasn’t working alone.”
“I know.”
“Then stop acting like this is finished.”
“I’m not.”
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
My mother laughed bitterly.
“Come to you?”
“You inherited the organization I was running from.”
“I would have protected you.”
“That was the problem.”
Silence followed.
Then my mother spoke softly.
“I didn’t want Ruby growing up behind armored glass.”
Nathaniel’s answer came slowly.
“She grew up facing eviction.”
“That is not fair.”
“No.”
“It isn’t.”
His voice broke slightly.
“I had everything.”
“You had nothing.”
“And my daughter was buying school lunch with coins.”
I felt tears come to my eyes.
My mother spoke.
“I made my choice.”
“You made it because someone terrified you.”
“I still made it.”
Nathaniel became quiet.
Then he asked something I had secretly wondered.
“Does she know?”
“No.”
“About me?”
“She knows nothing about your world except rumors.”
“And her last name?”
“Carter.”
“Yours.”
“Yes.”
Another silence.
Then Nathaniel said something strange.
“Someone changed the original birth record.”
My mother stopped breathing.
“What?”
“I had it checked while you were with the doctor.”
“The original hospital database lists father unknown.”
“But someone accessed it three months ago.”
“Who?”
“The request came from Graves Tower.”
My mother whispered.
“So Calder knew.”
“Someone here knew before Calder moved.”
A knock came from the front entrance.
Dante appeared.
He carried a folder.
“We identified the person who authorized the eviction.”
Nathaniel opened it.
His face hardened.
My mother stepped closer.
“Who?”
Dante looked uncomfortable.
“Victor Graves.”
My mother went completely still.
I had heard that name before.
Nathaniel’s uncle.
The man who had raised him after his father died.
The man Nathaniel trusted more than almost anyone.
Nathaniel closed the folder.
“My uncle is in Europe.”
Dante shook his head.
“His private jet landed in New York three hours ago.”
Then a voice sounded from the dark living room.
“You always were difficult to surprise, Nathaniel.”
May you like
An older man stepped into the light.
Victor Graves had been inside the apartment the entire time.
