CHAPTER 33 — The Weight of BloodPOV: MelissaThe house smelled like medicine and old wood.Melissa stood just outside her father’s bedroom door, fingers curled into her palm, listening to the uneven rhythm of his breathing. Each inhale sounded like effort. Each exhale like surrender.Three days.That was how long she’d been back, and already the house felt like a battlefield pretending to be a home.Alice’s voice drifted from downstairs sharp, theatrical, deliberately loud.“…stress is not good for him, Doctor. Especially with certain people around.”Melissa closed her eyes.Certain people meant her.She knocked once and entered before anyone could stop her.Her father lay propped against pillows, thinner than she remembered, his skin dull, his eyes sunken but still unmistakably familiar. For a moment, she wasn’t the woman who had returned powerful and untouchable. She was just a daughter again.“Dad,” she said softly.His eyes shifted toward her. Recognition came slowly then guilt.
더 보기