2026-06-14 22:09:37
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CHAPTER 204
The hospital room carried the sharp smell of antiseptic and the low, steady beeping of the heart monitor. Carden lay propped against the pillows, his face still pale but his eyes fully alert. Vivian sat beside him in the chair, her posture stiff, her gaze fixed on the window as if she had not just kissed him minutes ago in front of everyone.The door opened slowly. Richard walked in first, followed by the patriarch who leaned on his cane with each step. The moment the two men crossed the threshold, something in the air shifted. The way Richard looked at Carden was nothing like before. Gone was the cold sneer. Gone was the disgust. In its place sat something heavier. Something that a proud man like Richard would never openly name but could not hide either.Richard stopped at the foot of the bed. His jaw worked for a moment, grinding against words that clearly did not come easy to him. He glanced at Vivian, then back at Carden. His fingers curled and uncurled at his sides."I owe you a
CHAPTER 203
The sterile white lights of Ashford Hills General Hospital hummed above the corridor. Vivian sat on the cold metal bench, her fingers locked together so tightly her knuckles had turned white. Her eyes were fixed on the operating room doors. She had not moved from that spot for hours.The patriarch sat beside her, his weathered hand resting on his cane. Every few minutes, he would glance at his granddaughter, then back at those doors.Richard stood against the far wall with his arms crossed. His face carried a look that was hard to read. Not anger. Not worry. Something in between that he refused to name.The doors finally opened. A surgeon stepped out, pulling his mask down, and the exhaustion on his face made Vivian's heart stop for a full second."The patient is stable. The bullet has been removed successfully. He will need extended rest, but the worst is over."Vivian's entire body went limp. She pressed her palms against her face and drew in a long, shaking breath that she had been
CHAPTER 202
Jerry coughed. His hand reached upward. Lorenzo stared at it for three full seconds before taking it.Distant sirens cut through the night air. Faint at first, then growing louder, the sound threading through the trees and across the clearing from at least two directions. Red and blue lights flickered against the horizon.Everyone heard them. Nobody moved to welcome them. The situation held too many layers for a clean handoff to authorities, and the men on both sides understood that the power dynamics present in this clearing were beyond what uniforms and badges could easily sort through.Jerry's remaining men appeared from the tree line. Four of them, moving fast, weapons still drawn. They assessed the scene in two seconds and converged on Jerry without a word. Two of them lifted him from the ground while the third grabbed Lorenzo's arm."We need to go," the lead man said to Lorenzo. "Now. Before those sirens get closer."Lorenzo looked over his shoulder at Carden on the ground. At V
CHAPTER 201
Carden's hand came up slowly.It took everything he had left. The muscles in his arm trembled, the fingers shook, but they found Vivian's face and rested there against her tear soaked cheek. The warmth of his palm against her skin made her cry harder."Listen to me." His lips barely moved. His voice was fading at the edges, thinning out the way a flame thins when the air around it changes. "I will never let you suffer again. Not like this. Not ever.""Stop talking." Vivian pressed her hand over his, holding it against her face. "Save your strength. Please.""Protecting you is the only thing that matters." His thumb moved once across her cheekbone. "Everything else is noise.""Carden, please stop." Her voice broke on his name. "You need to save your energy."His hand slipped from her face. Not because he wanted it to. Because his body had reached the point where wanting and doing were no longer connected by the same wire.Sebastian was already moving.He dropped to his knees beside Car
CHAPTER 200
The patriarch arrived behind Richard. He
CHAPTER 199
He came from the north side of the clearing.Not running. Walking. Each step deliberate and measured, carrying a weight that went beyond the woman in his arms. Carden's face was pale beneath the dirt and blood that covered it, and his jaw was locked in the particular way that belongs to someone who is channeling every remaining unit of willpower into the act of staying vertical.Vivian was in his arms. Her body was curled against his chest, her bound hands pressed against his collar, her face buried in the space between his neck and shoulder. She was shaking. Not the small, controlled trembling she had been performing for the past several hours. Full body shaking, the kind that comes when the thing holding a person together finally lets go.Behind Carden, on the back of his shirt, a dark stain was spreading. It started near his lower spine and expanded outward in a circle that grew larger with each step he took. The fabric around it was torn where something had entered, and the blood
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