All Chapters of Love me back to life: Chapter 21 - Chapter 25

Ocean Hospital, Minutes Later The scream still hung in the air of the ward, but Queen's face was already changing. Whatever had cracked in her a second before sealed itself back over, fast, like a wound closing before it had even finished bleeding. She didn't cry. She didn't sit down. She let go of Wayne's cold hand slowly, deliberately, and turned to Louisa with an expression that had gone completely flat — the same stillness people had learned, over the years, to be far more afraid of than any raised voice. "I'm having him discharged," she said. It wasn't a question. "Queen, he needs to stay here. He's still on life support, he's still—" "I didn't ask a question. Did I?" Louisa opened her mouth, then closed it again. She had seen this look on Queen exactly once before, years ago, at a dinner where a business partner had made the mistake of underestimating her in front of his own people. He never made that mistake twice. Whatever came next, Louisa understood there was no versio

Grovemont Private Hospital The vehicle slowed. Stopped. For a moment, no one moved. The paramedic sat with his hands folded loosely between his knees, the posture of a man who had delivered his verdict and had nothing left to do but wait for the doors to open and let the rest of the world in on it. Mirabella lifted her head, just slightly, enough to see Wayne's hand still resting where she'd left it. She didn't reach for it again. She wasn't sure she could survive reaching for it again and feeling nothing back. The back doors opened. Cold air rushed in first, sharp against her wet face, and then hands — several sets of them, moving fast, practiced, unbothered by grief because grief wasn't their job. They were already sliding the stretcher toward the doors before she'd even registered them stepping inside. She stumbled out after it, her legs unsteady beneath her, one hand pressed to the ambulance wall to keep from falling. That was when she saw Queen's car pull in behind t