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All Chapters of After My Last Breath: Chapter 301 - Chapter 310

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Chapter 301

My blood runs cold. I’m on the floor beside her before I even realize I’ve moved. “What’s wrong, sweetie? What hurts?”Her little chest is heaving, each breath a shallow, painful struggle. Her small hands clutch at her shirt, her knuckles white.“My… my chest,” she whimpers, her lips turning a faint, alarming shade of blue. “It… it hurts.”The world narrows to the size of her terrified face. The sounds of the game, the distant chatter of the adults, all of it fades into a dull, meaningless hum. All I can hear is the frantic, uneven rhythm of her breathing. All I can feel is the cold, clammy sweat on her skin.And mine.“Get the car,” I shout at no one in particular, my voice sharp, laced with a panic I can’t contain. “We need to go to the hospital. Now.”I scoop her up into my arms, her body limp and heavy against mine. She feels smaller than sh

Chapter 302

[Griffin]I’m in the middle of attending a video conference when Nora calls and informs me about Cora’s relapse.I don’t think I have ever run faster.Before I know it, I’m throwing the doors open, my phone still glued to my ear, and rushing to my car as fast as my feet can carry me.During the whole drive, I don’t let myself think about anything but Cora and the treatment regimen I have followed so far. I think about her last surgery and try to understand what might have gone wrong this time. According to her previous scans, she shouldn’t have suffered a relapse so soon. Although weak, her heart has been stable, and even though she couldn’t be as active as other normal kids, it was still alright if she worked herself up a little.When I reach the hospital, the CMO is already outside the glass doors, waiting for me with the other doctors and nurses.He starts rattling off updates the moment he’

Chapter 303

[Elara]When Cora is being taken to the OR, I follow them until I’m allowed.I keep up with the gurney as it hurtles down the corridor, my hand tightly clasped around Cora’s tiny, cold fingers.“Mommy’s right here, baby,” I whisper, running my other hand frantically through her soft curls, trying to keep my voice from trembling. “You’re going to be okay. Daddy Griffin is going to fix this.”A nurse gently but firmly steps in front of me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “This is as far as you can go, Ma’am. We need to get her prepped.”The gurney doesn't stop. I'm forced to let go of Cora’s hand, feeling the chill of the air replace her warmth.I press my forehead against the cold glass, my chest heaving as tears finally overflow, blinding my vision.“Please, God,” I whisper into the empty air, clutching my arms around myself to keep from falling apart.

Chapter 304

I hear Damon trying to come up with something, but Nicholas beats him to it. He snaps his fingers, and I turn around just in time to catch four of his bodyguards racing toward him.Wait. Have they always been here?“Get him out of our sight!”Damon barely has time to take a step back before two of them grab him by the arms.“Hey!” he snaps, struggling against their grip. “Get your hands off me!”Nobody listens.I glance at Nicholas, and the expression on his face tells me everything I need to know.He’s standing up for me. Something someone rarely did in the past.“Elara!” Damon pleads with me, his eyes holding the kind of expectation that I once held for him. “You can’t do this. I know I made mis

Chapter 305

[Elara]Minutes turn into hours. Hours turn into an eternity.My entire being is focused on those double doors, on the silent prayer that repeats itself in my mind like a mantra. Please let her be okay. Please let her be okay.I find myself replaying the last few hours in my mind, trying to pinpoint the exact moment when everything went wrong. Was it the pizza? Did she eat something she shouldn’t have? Was it the running? Did she push herself too hard?Why didn’t I warn her like I always do? Why didn’t I stop her?Because you were having fun. You were having a moment with your family. A real family. And for a few hours, you forgot. You forgot she wasn’t like other kids. You forgot she was fragile.The guilt is a heavy, suffocating blanket, smothering

Chapter 306

[Griffin]I don’t know what to do.Nothing has ever made me so damn torn before.I feel like I’m back in the woods, small and terrified, cowering behind my mom because everything around us scares me to my very soul. No matter where I look, there are eyes, real or just my imagination; it hardly matters. From the crunch of the dry leaves and twigs to the hoot of the owl, everything feels like they are out to get me. Eat me. Digest me.There’s no way out. Nowhere to run. Only impending doom waiting for us to gobble us down.I’m not irrational enough to think that something like that would happen again. And even if it did, I’m prepared now. I’m grown. I can kill whatever tries to kill me if not with my hands, then with my brain.It’s not fear—not completely—but the lack of choice that’s

Chapter 307

Suddenly, he lurches toward me. The flowers and gifts are abandoned, falling to the floor. Arms flying. Anger bursting through his eyes and spewing from his mouth.He swings wildly, trying to land a blow on my face, but his movement is sloppy and fueled by blind rage. I easily step inside his guard, grabbing his wrist with one hand and slamming him back against the wall with the other.He gasps, the air knocked out of his lungs, but I don’t let him go. I pin him there, my forearm pressed against his throat, just enough to make breathing a conscious effort.“Look at me,” I command, my voice low and dangerous. “Do you think I’m afraid of you? Do you think a temper tantrum from a washed-up heir impresses me?”He struggles against my hold, but it’s useless. He’s a child throwing a fit, and I’m the adult who’s had enough.

Chapter 308

A fresh wave of tears fills Cora’s eyes as she reaches out for me, her little fingers closing around mine in a grip that’s both weak and desperate. I can feel the tremor in her hands—the faint, frantic flutter of her pulse against my skin.My heart aches with a deep, throbbing pain that’s almost physical. She worries about Vera. Of course she does. My brave, selfless little girl, who is fighting for her own life, is more concerned about the feelings of the sister who has barely spoken a word to anyone since she was rescued.“No, honey, of course not,” I say, my voice a low, soothing murmur as I gently wipe away her tears with my thumb. “Vera was worried, yes. But she doesn’t hate you. She could never hate you. She loves you very, very much.”“Are you sure?” Cora presses, her lower lip trembling. “I don’t want her to hate me. I don&rsqu

Chapter 309

When we step out of the back exit of the hospital, very few people can be seen lingering about.The sky has turned dark, and the lampposts cast long shadows on the ground.In the moment, I’m very much aware of the man walking beside me. We haven’t spoken a word since we left Cora’s room, but the silence is comfortable. Easy. The cool evening air feels like a balm against my heated skin, and I can feel the tension slowly draining out of my shoulders.It’s only when, instead of entering the garden that I thought we were heading to, he leads us to the parking lot that I speak. “Where are we going?”“Somewhere I can take care of you.”I raise a brow, struggling to see the grin on his face that I know is there.He raises his hands as if to say, ‘Not like that’.

Chapter 310

I chuckle when he asks me if I’m jealous.I’m so NOT jealous.And why should I be? Of what?The fact that he has been with other women? Or that he might have slept with many more women before me?The idea never came to me before. But now that it has, it kind of sticks.Something tightens in my chest.I try to ignore it. It’s probably nothing.“I don’t think I have the right to judge your past relationships,” I say, trying to be honest and mean every word. “Mine is a mess, and you’re still here.”He is, isn’t he?So maybe it doesn’t matter. The past is in the past, and what matters is this very moment in the present and the future that still needs to be planned and built.He leans back, cocking his head, and looks at me as if considering my words, processing them. “Are you saying that if someday a woman walks into our life and claims to be my l

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