جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 30

TWO YEARS LATER – THIRD PERSON POV It had been two years since Karline signed those papers that shattered her world. Two years since she walked out of the Carter mansion with nothing but a suitcase, her son in her arms, and her pride barely intact. Life hadn’t been easy...but it hadn’t broken her either. She had found a decent office job in the nearby town, nothing extravagant but steady enough to provide. It kept food on the table and gave her son a sense of stability. Still, every morning when she kissed Ethan’s cheek and left him in her parents’ care, a part of her heart clenched with guilt. He was still so small. Too small, she thought sometimes, to be without her for hours. But she had to. For him. For their future. Today, however, was her day off. The smell of tomato sauce and melted cheese drifted from the kitchen as her mother, Isabella, pulled a tray of lasagna from the oven. “Karline, cara, come taste. I made it the way you like,” she called, her voice full of warmth.

The air in the suddenly turned heavy, suffocating.Karline’s throat tightened. Her eyes stung as tears welled up, but not from relief, from the unbearable weight of his words. He wasn’t saying it out of love. He wasn’t saying it because he believed in her, or believed in Ethan. He was saying it as if he were saving her from shame, from abandonment.Her lips trembled, the words barely finding their way out. “Reid…” She pressed a hand to her chest as though trying to hold the pieces of herself together. “Do you even hear yourself? Do you realize what you’re saying to me?”Reid’s brows furrowed, his expression unyielding. “I’m offering you stability, Karline. A family. I don’t care whose blood runs in that boy’s veins...if his so-called father refuses to show up, I will. Isn’t that enough?”Her tears finally spilled, rolling hot down her cheeks. She shook her head slowly, painfully. “Enough?” Her voice broke on the word. “You think this is about stability? What about the parental rights

Third Person POVThe sound of keyboards clicking filled the office, mingling with the faint hum of the air conditioner and the occasional ring of a phone. Karline adjusted her headset, her eyes fixed on the spreadsheet glowing on her computer screen. She had always been efficient, always focused. Yet today, her mind kept wandering back to Ethan, who was with her mother on the farm.She smiled faintly at the thought of him chasing the chickens again, his little feet stomping the soil, his giggles echoing across the yard.“Karline,” a voice broke her reverie. It was Chiara, her desk mate, leaning over with a mischievous grin. “You’re smiling again. Let me guess, your little one?”Karline chuckled softly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Ethan. He’s probably running wild in the garden right now. My mom says he has too much energy.”“Children are like that.” Chiara sighed dramatically, dropping her pen on the desk. “Meanwhile, look at us. Chained to this office. No chickens to c

KARLINE’S POINT OF VIEW The fever hadn’t gone. All through the night, Ethan tossed and turned, his tiny body burning with a heat that terrified me. His cheeks glowed red, his lips dry, and every so often, he whimpered my name. Each sound splintered my heart into pieces. I sat by his side, cloth in hand, wiping his forehead again and again, whispering soothing words I wasn’t sure he could even hear. Each time the medicine worked, it lasted only a few hours before the fever surged back with vengeance. I begged silently, to God, to fate, to anyone who would listen just take the fever away. But the night dragged on, and morning came with no mercy. The doctor had been useless. “It’s just a fever,” he had said again. “Children bounce back. Don’t worry too much, Karline” Don’t worry? How could a mother not worry when her child was suffering? When her child is burning in fever. Still, life was relentless. I had already taken two days off work. Bills were piling up, and Ethan

Third Person POVThe office floor was eerily quiet. The hum of computers had died down, the chatter of colleagues silenced. One by one, the lights across the hallways had flickered off as people left for the night, until only a single pool of light remained in the vast expanse of the building.Karline Russo sat at her cubicle, her back aching, her eyes stinging from staring at spreadsheets that blurred into one another. She rolled her stiff shoulders, sighing softly. The silence pressed on her, heavy and suffocating.Her gaze drifted toward the corner of her desk. A small photo frame sat there one she always kept close.It was a picture of her and Ethan. His round cheeks pressed against her, his wide smile showing tiny baby teeth, his small fingers curled around hers. Her heart softened instantly. She reached forward, brushing the glass with her fingertips.Her lips trembled. Just one more hour. One more unbearable hour.The tick of the clock above her seemed cruel. Every second dragg