Chapter 7 - Pieces of a Broken Heart
For the next three days, the cabin became a fortress of quiet determination.
Marcus and his security team kept a silent, watchful guard on the perimeter, while inside, Daniel and Ava worked late into the night beneath the warm glow of kerosene lamps.
Daniel’s bookkeeping skills proved invaluable. He spent hours tracing the wire transfer routing numbers from the clinic files, navigating through a complex web of shell companies, offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands, and private medical transport charters.
"I’ve got it," Daniel said on the fourth morning, his voice thick with exhaustion but bright with triumph. He pointed to a printout of a financial ledger on the wooden table. "Julian didn't send Nathan to Switzerland. That was a lie to throw Harrison Vance off the trail."
Ava leaned over his shoulder, her heart skipping a beat. "Where is he?"
"He was transferred to a private, high-security medical estate in Castle Rock," Daniel said. "Just forty miles south of Denver. It’s registered under a holding company called Aegis Holdings—which is owned directly by Julian Vance. It’s an old, historic stone manor surrounded by ten acres of private forest. It has its own private medical wing."
"He’s been right here," Ava whispered, a cold, sickening horror washing over her. "Forty miles from my house. For eight years."
"According to the facility's recent utility and supply orders," Daniel continued, his finger sliding down the page, "they are still ordering specialized life-support equipment, heavy sedatives, and hiring private, non-disclosure-bound nursing staff. Ava... he’s still alive. They are keeping him under deep sedation to prevent his brain from recovering."
Ava’s eyes filled with tears, but this time, they were not tears of grief. They were tears of pure, unadulterated resolve.
"We are going to get him," she said, her voice ringing with absolute authority. "We are going to bring him home."
"But how?" Daniel asked. "The Castle Rock estate is a fortress. Marcus says they have private armed security, state-of-the-art surveillance, and electric fences. We can't just storm the place. If Julian realizes we’re there, he might... he might cut the power to Nathan’s life support."
Ava stood up, walking over to the window. The morning sun was painting the aspen trees in shades of gold and amber.
"We don't storm it," Ava said, her eyes flashing with a cold, brilliant light. "We use the board of directors. On Friday morning, Hawthorne AeroSystems is holding its annual shareholder meeting at the corporate headquarters in Denver. Julian Vance is planning to present the final integration of the Aegis Protocol—using a forged digital key his engineers have been working on."
She turned to face Daniel.
"We show up at that meeting. We present the original paper files, the financial tracking, and the real physical key—the compass. We expose him in front of the military representatives, the board, and the press. Once his legal protection collapses, the federal authorities will have no choice but to raid the Castle Rock estate to secure Nathan."
Daniel looked at her, a deep, profound respect in his eyes. "It’s a high-stakes gamble, Ava. If Julian realizes what we’re doing before the meeting, he will destroy everything."
"It’s the only move we have," Ava said.
She walked over to him, her hand gently resting on his shoulder. "Daniel... I want to thank you. For everything. You’ve given me my husband back. You’ve given me a reason to hope again."
Daniel looked up at her, his gray eyes warm, but carrying a faint, hidden ache. Over the last week, as they had worked side-by-side in the quiet cabin, he had realized something that terrified him.
He was falling in love with Ava Hawthorne.
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He loved her strength, her brilliant mind, her fierce protectiveness. He loved the way she looked at his daughter, the way she had held Lily during the terrifying escape from the clinic. But he also knew she belonged to a completely different world—a world of billion-dollar corporations and high-society galas. And more than that, her heart belonged to a man who was still breathing, forty miles away.
"You don't have to thank me, Ava," Daniel said softly, his hand gently covering hers on his shoulder. "Let’s just bring Nathan home."
