Part 4
At exactly 6:45 AM on Christmas morning, Nathan's phone buzzed.
An encrypted PDF file appeared in his inbox.
Marcus was nothing if not efficient.
Nathan sat up in bed, threw on a robe, and opened the document.
As he read line after line, his chest tightened.
Jenna Carter, twenty-eight years old.
Husband passed away in a workplace accident three years ago.
The company had used a legal loophole to avoid paying any compensation.
She was left with a mountain of medical bills and a one-year-old baby.
She worked three jobs.
Cleaning houses by day.
Scrubbing office buildings by night.
Laundromat shifts on weekends.
Her current address was an apartment complex in the lower east side of the city.
An area Nathan knew all too well. It was the same neighborhood he had grown up in.
The building was notorious for broken plumbing, failing heat, and landlords who didn't care.
According to the report, her rent was two months behind.
An eviction notice was scheduled to be served on December 27th.
Tomorrow.
Nathan closed the file.
He stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the pristine, snow-covered grounds of his mansion.
He thought about Daisy asking for a heater for Christmas so her mother's hands wouldn't be cold.
He thought about Jenna skipping meals so her daughter could eat.
A cold, burning anger flared up inside him. Not at Jenna, but at the world.
And at himself, for sitting on a mountain of gold while people like her were drowning just a few miles away.
He didn't call his assistant back.
This wasn't a job for Marcus.
Nathan dressed quickly in casual clothes—jeans and a heavy wool jacket.
He grabbed his wallet, his car keys, and went down to the garage.
He chose his largest SUV, a black Range Rover with four-wheel drive.
First, he drove to an upscale 24-hour department store in the downtown district.
Being Nathan Calloway meant he could call the store manager directly.
By the time he arrived, the manager was waiting at the back door with three personal shoppers.
"Mr. Calloway, what an unexpected honor on Christmas morning," the manager said, bowing slightly.
"I need clothes," Nathan said, walking past him into the empty, brightly lit store.
"A little girl, age four or five. Winter gear, dresses, shoes, everything. High quality."
"And for a woman, mid-twenties. Warm coats, boots, sweaters."
"I also need toys. A lot of them. Whatever a five-year-old girl dreams of."
The shoppers moved like a military unit.
Within forty-five minutes, the back of Nathan's SUV was piled high with enormous boxes, wrapped in beautiful red and gold paper.
But he wasn't done.
His next stop was an appliance store. He bought the safest, most efficient space heater they had in stock.
Finally, he drove toward the lower east side.
The streets grew narrower.
The snow here wasn't clean and white; it was gray and sludgy, pushed into dirty piles against crumbling brick buildings.
He parked in front of a run-down four-story tenement block.
The front door's lock was broken.
Nathan carried two massive boxes in his arms, his boots echoing up the concrete stairwell.
He climbed to the third floor and found apartment 3B.
May you like
He could hear a faint, raspy cough coming from inside.
He took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
