공유

Chapter 421 Borrowed Time

작가: Artemis Z.Y.
last update 최신 업데이트: 2025-10-24 04:09:26

Kyle's POV

Dr. Norbu was still in the chair. His burgundy robes pooled around him like liquid. The fabric looked ancient. Hand-woven. The kind of thing looked like it had been passed down through generations of monks in some monastery high in the Himalayas where the air was so thin.

He didn't look out of place here though. In this sterile American hospital room with its beeping machines and antiseptic smell and fluorescent lights that hummed like trapped insects.

If anything, the room looked wrong around him.

"You went swimming tonight," he said.

Not a question. A statement.

"I fell in a pool."

"That was either very brave or very foolish."

"Probably both."

"Probably." He smiled. "But you are still here."

"Is it?"

He reached into his bag. Not the leather medical bag Western doctors carried. This was cloth. Woven. With patterns that hurt to look at too long because they seemed to shift when you weren't paying attention.

He pulled out a small vial. Dark glass. Filled with liquid that loo
이 책을.
QR 코드를 스캔하여 앱을 다운로드하세요
잠긴 챕터

최신 챕터

  • The Unwanted Wife and Her Secret Twins   Epilogue

    Mia's POVThe golden hour has passed, leaving behind that particular blue that only exists at tropical dusk—not quite night, not quite day, just this suspended moment when the world holds its breath.We're on the deck of our bungalow. The ocean stretches endlessly in every direction, turning from turquoise to navy to something darker, something ancient. The first stars are appearing overhead, hesitant, like they're not sure they're welcome yet.The kids are exhausted.Three hours of snorkeling, two hours of beach time after that, dinner at the cafe where Alexander ate his body weight in "crispy chicken tenders," and then a bath that involved more water ending up on the floor than on any actual child.Now they're in pajamas. Clean, damp-haired, sun-drunk and happy.Madison is curled against my side, Eleanor tucked under her chin. Her eyes are half-closed, but she's fighting it. Fighting sleep like it's the enemy.

  • The Unwanted Wife and Her Secret Twins   The Honeymoon Chronicles: Chapter 4 Sunscreen, Sand, and Selective Hearing

    Mia's POVGlass floor panels show the ocean below, actual fish swimming beneath our feet. A private infinity pool that seems to pour directly into the lagoon. A deck with stairs leading straight into water so clear I can see the sandy bottom twenty feet down. And the bed—"THE BED IS BIGGER THAN OUR ENTIRE APARTMENT!" Alexander has already claimed it, bouncing in the center like it's a trampoline. "LOOK! I CAN DO A STARFISH AND I DON'T EVEN TOUCH THE EDGES!""Alexander, shoes off the bed," I say automatically."BUT I'M TESTING THE STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY!""Test it without shoes."He kicks off his sneakers. They fly in opposite directions. One lands in the pool."...oops.""I'll get it." Kyle is already moving.Ethan has found the glass floor panel and is lying on his stomach, face pressed against it, watching the fish."Mama," he breathes. "Mama, there's a school of sergeant majors. And I thin

  • The Unwanted Wife and Her Secret Twins   The Honeymoon Chronicles: Chapter 3 Landing in Paradise

    Mia's POVThe Maldives looks like someone Photoshopped reality.I know that sounds ridiculous. But seeing it from the air—seeing those impossible rings of turquoise and sapphire and colors that don't have names, seeing the palm trees and the white sand and the tiny islands scattered across the ocean like someone spilled emeralds on blue silk—It doesn't look real."MAMA!" Alexander has his face pressed against the window so hard I'm concerned he's going to leave a permanent imprint. "MAMA, LOOK! LOOK AT THE WATER! IT'S BLUE! IT'S SO BLUE! WHY IS IT SO BLUE?""The water depth and the white sand bottom create light refraction that—" Ethan begins."I DON'T CARE ABOUT REFRACTION! I CARE ABOUT SWIMMING IN IT!""You can't swim in refraction. Refraction is an optical phenomenon—""ETHAN!""Boys." Kyle's voice cuts through. "Look out the window. Be amazed. Stop try

  • The Unwanted Wife and Her Secret Twins   The Honeymoon Chronicles: Chapter 2 The Great In-Flight Incident

    Mia's POVI should have known better than to close my eyes.The coffee helped—Patricia brought me something that could probably strip paint, bless her—but exhaustion is exhaustion, and I've been running on fumes since the wedding. Since before the wedding. Since approximately five years ago when I gave birth to two human alarm clocks who have never once slept past 7 AM.So when Madison finally falls asleep, and Alexander gets absorbed in some movie about talking cars, and Ethan opens his book about aerodynamics (because of course he does), I let myself sink into the leather seat and close my eyes.Just for a minute.Just—"MAMA!"I jolt awake.Alexander is standing in the aisle, his face pale, his eyes huge."MAMA, ETHAN FAINTED!"I'm on my feet before I'm fully conscious."What? Where? ETHAN!""He's in the bathroom!" Alexander is practically vibrating. "He went in there and I heard a THUMP and now he's not answering and the door is LOCKED and—"I'm already moving.Kyle is right behin

  • The Unwanted Wife and Her Secret Twins   The Honeymoon Chronicles: Chapter 1 Thirty Thousand Feet of Chaos

    --- Bonus Chapters --- (Main story complete. These are extra scenes!)Mia's POVThere are things they don't tell you about honeymoons.They don't tell you that "romantic getaway" and "bringing three children under six" are mutually exclusive concepts. They don't tell you that the phrase "family honeymoon" is an oxymoron on par with "jumbo shrimp" or "deafening silence."And they definitely don't tell you that a private jet—a Gulfstream G650, to be precise—does absolutely nothing to muffle the sound of three overexcited children discovering that airplane bathrooms are, in Alexander's words, "BASICALLY MAGIC PORTALS.""IT FLUSHES WITH A BUTTON!" Alexander's voice carries from the bathroom at the back of the plane. "A BUTTON, ETHAN! YOU PUSH IT AND EVERYTHING JUST—WHOOOOSH—DISAPPEARS!""I'm aware of how toilets work," Ethan calls back. But there's something in his voice. Something I haven't heard in a while.Excitement.I crack open one eye.Kyle is beside me, stretched out in the cream

  • The Unwanted Wife and Her Secret Twins    Chapter 520 Are you happy?

    Mia's POVThe crowd laughs. The soft, affectionate laughter."The rings," the officiant says.Alexander explodes into motion."I HAVE THEM!" He's already running, the pillow bouncing in his hands, the rings jangling. "DON'T WORRY, I DIDN'T LOSE THEM THIS TIME! I KEPT CHECKING! EVERY FIVE MINUTES!""Alexander—""THEY'RE RIGHT HERE! SEE?" He skids to a stop in front of us, holding up the pillow with the kind of triumph usually reserved for Olympic medalists. "BOTH OF THEM! STILL ATTACHED!"Kyle takes the rings. His hand is shaking."Good job, buddy," he says. His voice is thick."I know." Alexander grins. That gap-toothed grin. "I practiced."He runs back to his siblings. I hear the inevitable argument beginning—"You were TOO LOUD, Alexander"—"I was ENTHUSIASTIC, there's a DIFFERENCE"—but it fades into background noise as Kyle takes my hand again.The ring is simple. A band of platinum, unadorned. We chose it together, in a quiet moment that felt more intimate than any grand gesture. No

더보기
좋은 소설을 무료로 찾아 읽어보세요
GoodNovel 앱에서 수많은 인기 소설을 무료로 즐기세요! 마음에 드는 책을 다운로드하고, 언제 어디서나 편하게 읽을 수 있습니다
앱에서 책을 무료로 읽어보세요
앱에서 읽으려면 QR 코드를 스캔하세요.
DMCA.com Protection Status