Chapter 1 - The Heartbeat After Death
“Time of death, 2:28 a.m.”
Dr. Everett Hale pulled off his gloves and turned away from the emergency bed.
Dominic Russo lay motionless beneath the cold white lights.
His black shirt had been cut open. Medical leads covered his chest, but the heart monitor showed almost nothing except a thin green line.
Two men in expensive suits watched through the glass.
Neither of them looked devastated.
They looked relieved.
Cara Mitchell remained beside the bed with her stethoscope pressed against Dominic’s chest.
She was twenty-four years old.
A new emergency-room nurse.
The least powerful person in the room.
“Step away, Nurse Mitchell,” Hale ordered.
Cara did not move.
Something had touched her ears through the stethoscope.
A faint sound.
Then silence.
Then another weak beat.
Her hand began trembling.
“No,” she whispered.
Hale stopped near the door.
“What did you say?”
Cara pressed the stethoscope harder against Dominic’s chest.
His left side barely moved.
The monitor flashed one weak green spike before returning to a nearly flat line.
“He’s still alive.”
Hale walked back quickly.
“You’re hearing muscle activity.”
“I heard a heartbeat.”
“He has no meaningful pulse.”
Cara looked at Dominic’s uneven chest.
His neck veins were swollen.
The left side of his rib cage rose differently from the right.
Something was trapping pressure inside him.
She reached for the emergency tray.
Hale caught her wrist.
“Do not touch him.”
Cara looked into his eyes.
There was no uncertainty in them.
Only fear that she might continue.
On the floor near the bed, a bodyguard’s phone lit up.
A message appeared across the screen.
IF HE’S DEAD, LORENZO TAKES OVER BEFORE SUNRISE.
Cara pulled free.
“Someone wanted this.”
She grabbed the decompression kit.
Hale shouted for security.
Cara inserted the emergency needle where her training had taught her.
Air escaped under pressure.
The monitor produced one sharp beep.
Then another.
Dominic’s chest lifted.
He dragged in a rough breath.
His hand rose weakly and closed around Cara’s wrist.
Dr. Hale stood frozen.
One of the suited men outside stepped backward as if he had seen a ghost.
Dominic’s eyes opened only a fraction.
His voice was barely more than air.
“Who betrayed me?”
In the hallway, attorney Vincent Moretti watched the room through a security feed on his tablet.
His phone vibrated.
LORENZO MOVES BEFORE SUNRISE.
Vincent turned toward the remaining loyal guards.
May you like
“Lock down this floor.”
👉 Dominic had returned from the edge of death—but the people who wanted him gone were still inside the hospital.
