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Chapter 25: Motherhood's Weight

Author: Evve
last update Last Updated: 2025-12-22 16:41:37

The adrenaline of the birth, the fire and the screaming, had evaporated.

It left a silence in its wake, heavy and absolute, broken only by the sterile hum of the hospital lights and the distant, polite squeak of a nurse's shoes in the hallway.

Aurora was hollowed out. She was a raw, aching, exhausted shell. Every part of her body throbbed with a dull, bruised pain.

She was in a small, private room, the one Elias had arranged and paid for in cash, all under the name of Madame Ariane Rousseau.

He was asleep in the chair by the window, his tweed coat still on, his silver hair a mess, his mouth slightly open. He looked ancient, a frail, paper-thin guardian who had wept himself into exhaustion.

And in a clear, plastic bassinet by her bed, under the harsh fluorescent light, was the baby.

Ethan.

She had not held him since that first, shocking moment. After the midwife had placed him on her chest, after she had seen his eyes, she had flinched. A small, involuntary, violent recoil.

The midwife
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