Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 321 - Chapitre 328

ELARA’S POV He chokes violently, eyes wide, coughing as his body finally goes still. The gun slips from his fingers. I stand there, breathing hard, gun still raised, blood dripping from my skin. His eyes were wide. Pale. Relentless coughing. I could help him. I could press down on the wound, grab gauze from the cabinet, stop the bleeding. I could stop him from dying. I could stop myself from being labeled as the woman that took justice in her hands. Or a killer. But I didn’t. I watched him choke on his own blood on the floor of my dream home. I watched until his eyes lost their color. Until the struggling stopped. Until the muffled words faded into nothing. The doors broke open. Footsteps thundered in. But my eyes never left the monster lying before me. “Elara—” Elliot’s voice broke. “What did you do?” His gaze dropped to my nightgown. “Your water broke.” That’s when I saw it. The white puddle between my legs. No, this… it’s not possible, “

ELARA’S POV The nurse adjusted the paperwork at the foot of my bed.“You’re cleared for discharge today.”Discharge.The word sat wrong in my body, like it didn’t belong to me yet.I nodded anyway.Five days had passed too fast. Too full. Too heavy.Somehow, I’d crossed the line into motherhood without ever really holding my children.Nate stood beside me, already holding my bag, already ready. He looked proud. Like I’d passed something important. Like surviving counted as an achievement.My eyes drifted to the empty bassinet by the wall.“So…” My voice came out quieter than I meant. “I just… leave?”The nurse’s expression softened immediately. “For now. You can come back whenever you want. They’re in very good hands.”Good hands.I pressed my lips together and swung my legs off the bed. The movement tugged at my stitches, sharp and unforgiving, a reminder that my body had done something irreversible.At the NICU doors, I stopped.Since my delivery, I’d only been able to see Liam and

ELARA’S POV “I made the potatoes just the way you like it,” Nate says, dropping into his seat. Today was supposed to be an off day for the staff. And somehow, Nate had decided that meant we should have dinner. Just the two of us. Like this was an ordinary evening. Like the hospital wasn’t only a many miles away, holding everything that mattered. The plates sat between us, steam curling into the air. The food smelled good. Comforting, even. And that almost made it worse. I stared down at it, fork resting uselessly in my hand, my chest tightening with every second that passed. That was when the thought slipped out of me, heavy and sharp. “Don’t you think it’s weird,” I said, pushing my fork around the plate, appetite long gone, “eating while our kids are still in the hospital?” Nate’s eyes lifted from his phone for the first time since he got to the table. “It is” He set the phone face down and reached across the table, his fingers closing around mine. His grip was firm

ELARA’S POV I hesitated before touching them. My hands were still weak, slower than they used to be, trembling slightly as I flipped through the documents. Land ownership papers. My breath caught in my throat. “Nate…” “You told me about the foundation,” he said quietly. He was watching me closely, like he was afraid one wrong word might shatter me. “About the women you wanted to help. The ones who never get a second chance. When you showed me the blueprint, the way your eyes lit up even when everything else was falling apart…” He swallowed. “I kept thinking, what better way to start than giving you a place that’s yours.” “You didn’t have to do this,” I whispered. The words came out thinner than I meant them to. When I told him about my plans, I honestly thought he was joking when he said he wanted to be part of it. “But maybe,” he continued gently, “helping you build something that was always yours… something you control, something you manage… maybe it gives you a place to s