"James...?"
The name, the family, the era, the story of influence and power, everything they had built together, everything they had sacrificed for, everything that had once seemed unbreakable, collapsed in that single moment on the operating table as Hector stood there unable to move, unable to breathe, unable to understand how the man who had given him a purpose, a future, and a family could now be lying so painfully still before his eyes.
He slowly walked past the doctors and the nurses, until he finally reached out with a trembling hand and gently took hold of James's cold fingers.
"James... say something... hey, I am here, you can talk."
There were no tears yet. No screams or desperate cries.
Only a shock so deep that even his own heart seemed unable to understand what had happened as he stared at James's motionless body, waiting for something anything to happen.
He didn't move.
He didn't look at him.
