The Measure by Nikki Erlick

Author:Nikki Erlick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-06-28T00:00:00+00:00

Jack

Jack was supposed to be at that rally in Manhattan. Katherine had urged him to attend, but Jack lied and said he was sick.

Thank god he hadn’t been there to witness it. To see an innocent man killed at his uncle’s event, his body ripped by the bullet meant for Anthony. He couldn’t understand how things had come to this point, how his family’s actions had turned fatal. How, on a hot day at the end of August, Jack found himself staring at the photo of the man who had died, mere feet from his aunt and uncle.

In the picture, the doctor had short black hair, deep lines around his grin, the lightest shadow of stubble on his cheeks, a stethoscope resting around his neck. It was probably his official headshot, Jack thought, the portrait from the hospital directory.

Jack asked his father how Anthony and Katherine were holding up.

“Your aunt’s obviously shaken that they were targeted by this maniac,” his father said. “But overall, I think they’re doing remarkably well. Your uncle’s polling even higher since the attack.”

Doing remarkably well? Back to focusing on polls? Hadn’t they watched a man get shot?

Jack didn’t want to believe that his own family could have caused this man’s death. Sure, many of his relatives had fought in wars, but this was different. This was a park in Manhattan, not a combat zone. And, until that summer, Jack honestly believed that his family’s greatest transgressions had been committed against their own, against the members like Jack and his mother, who couldn’t fit the mold handcrafted by their ancestors.

Jack knew, in many ways, that he was lucky to be a Hunter, with all their comforts and connections. But Anthony’s campaign had unleashed something new, something darker, something that made all the other family faults seem trivial.

Most reports on the shooting exclaimed that the doctor had “saved” Congressman Rollins’s life, but Jack read one article online in which a friend explained that the victim, Hank, had actually been attending the anti-Rollins protest.

Was it really Hank’s hatred for Anthony that led to his death? His passion for the short-stringers’ cause? Jack wanted to pinpoint the rationale, the motivation that Hank apparently felt was worth jumping in front of a gun for. As hard as he tried—and, indeed, at the academy he tried over and over—Jack still couldn’t imagine feeling anything so strongly that he would willingly risk his life for it. He had seen that commitment in his fellow cadets, and he saw it in Javier, who was still zealously pursuing his path of service even after receiving his string. Jack wondered what it would feel like to be so certain, so devoted. To feel that nothing about you was a mistake.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.