Heartless People |Book 4|

Chapter 15

"No state, no government exists. What does in fact exist is a man, or a few men, in power over many men."

~ Rose Wilder Lane

LISA

2:52 PM

This felt different.

Jennie and I had a running joke that the hospital was her second home. Between the two of us, she was the one that always ended up there, first when she was stabbed and lost our child, then after her car accident where her mother shot her. After that, there was her pregnancy with Ethan, which led to her kidnapping. She also had issues with the births of Dona and Wyatt...and now this. On her way to the hospital, she ended up in the hospital.

I would have laughed...if she were beside me. I would have laughed and said she had the worst luck in history. But she wasn't with me, and for some reason, this time felt different from all those times. The more I thought about it, the further into a black hole I fell. My hearing seemed to be the first thing to go. Everything was silent...then my vision seemed to tunnel, no matter how hard I tried to focus.

I was dying...and that scared me because it meant she was dying.

Our kids are fucked.

Ethan would never smile again.

Wyatt would just break down. He wouldn't make it.

Dona...my princess...with us both gone, I couldn't even bring myself to imagine the person she'd become.

Why is it so hard for me to protect them? Why am I always failing her? I should die. A man who cannot protect his family doesn't deserve them—I should die.

"LISA!"

Glancing up, my blurred vision cleared enough to see the doors opening.

"Jen?" I whispered, but it wasn't her coming out. A doctor pulled off his scrub cap, exposing his red hair as he took a deep breath before his eyes locked with mine. "My wife?"

"She's stable."

I took a deep breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. Fighting back the tears, I nodded. "When can I see her—"

"Ms. Manoban, I'm Doctor Fortmen. Your wife is stable, but she needs a heart. We have her in a medically induced coma right now and she is being moved to the intensive care unit. Her condition is critical, but we managed to stop the bleeding. However, if she doesn't get a new heart in the next day or so—"

"Get her a fucking heart, then! She's the goddamn governor!" I barked into his face. What was this? If she needed a heart, then give her heart. What the fuck! I'd rip mine out right then.

"Ms. Manoban, it can't be just any heart. Rejection is high in critical cases such as these, and on top of that, her blood type is the rarest in the world. It will take time. She is at the very top of the list but—"

"But nothing." Fine, they needed a heart, I was going to get her a heart. "The person needs to be AB negative, what else?"

"Ms. Manoban, I'm not sure what you are thinking—"

"WHAT ELSE!" I was tempted to kill him right there.

Stepping right in his face, making sure he saw me clearly, I asked simply, "Do you know who I am?"

"I know she is the governor, but—"

"I didn't ask if you knew who my wife was. I asked if you knew who I am. Me, Lisa Manoban."

He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again, saying nothing at all.

"I can be your savior, I can cloak you in gold, or I can be your worst nightmare. I can destroy your life, your career, everything can come crashing down around you. Chicago will become a place worse than hell because I get whatever I want when I want it. Those who get in my way never get back up after I knock them down. Nothing and no one is out of reach for me. So doctor, when I ask you what else, speak, and when you speak, don't waste my time preaching ethics and morality to me...I have and want none."