บททั้งหมดของ The Billionaire's Secret Bride : บทที่ 121 - บทที่ 130

The doctor didn’t rush it.That was the first thing Aria noticed.He didn’t speak right away. He didn’t smile, he didn’t soften his eyes. He cleared his throat instead, fingers tightening around the clipboard in his hands like he needed something solid to hold on to.The sound scraped against her nerves.Joe felt it too. He shifted beside her, one hand already hovering near her back, like instinct knew before reason did.Ethan stood a little apart from them, arms folded, jaw clenched, trying to look calm. Trying too hard.“Doctor?” Aria said.Her voice came out smaller than she expected. Thinner. Like it had already started breaking.The doctor glanced at Allen through the glass panel first. At the machines. At the steady, fragile rhythm keeping her son here.Then he looked back at them.“We’ve completed the blood screening,” he said carefully.Aria nodded too fast. “Okay. Okay. And—”He paused. That pause was unbearable.Her heart began to race, each beat loud in her ears, drowning o

The third week had begun quietly.The kind of quiet that pressed against Aria’s ears until she could hear her own breathing—ragged, uneven, like she was always a second away from breaking. Morning light slipped through the thin hospital curtains, pale and apologetic, landing softly on Allen’s face.He looked smaller every day.Always still.Aria sat beside his bed, fingers wrapped around his tiny hand, counting his breaths the way she’d learned to do when hope became something fragile you had to handle carefully. In. Out. In. Out. Each one felt borrowed.A week has gone by.Two left.She felt it everywhere—in her chest, in the ache behind her eyes, in the way her body seemed permanently braced for bad news.The door opened.She didn’t turn immediately. She already knew what was coming. You learned to recognize the sound of doctors’ shoes, the way they paused before speaking, like they were rehearsing tragedy in their heads.“Miss Hayes,” one of them said gently.Aria looked up.There

Joe left the hospital just before dawn. The sky outside the window was still bruised purple, the city half-asleep, when his phone rang for the third time. He stared at it like it had personally betrayed him. Then he sighed, rubbed his face, and stepped into the corridor. Aria watched him from Allen’s bedside. She didn’t ask him to stay. She already knew the answer. “I have to go,” Joe said quietly when he came back in. His voice was rough, like he’d been grinding his teeth all night. “Something blew up at work. They’re calling me in immediately.” She nodded. Once. Like her neck barely had the strength for more. “I’m sorry,” he added, standing there uselessly, hands flexing at his sides. “I hate leaving you like this.” “I know,” she whispered. “You’ve done more than enough.” He shook his head. “Not even close.” Mia stood by the window, arms folded tight across her chest. “We’ll call you,” she said. “The moment anything changes.” Joe walked back to Allen’s bed. He bent, press

Ethan parked quietly in the driveway, the engine ticking as it cooled. The night had been restless, each shadow outside the car window stretching longer than it should, whispering doubts he didn’t want to face.What if Mia was right? The thought circled in his mind, relentless, gnawing at the edges of his composure. What if everything I believed, everything I thought I knew… was wrong?He ran a hand through his hair, fingers trembling slightly. The house ahead looked calm, serene even, but he knew better. Inside, things were already in motion, and nothing here was as simple as it seemed.He stepped inside. Liam and Evelyn lounged in the sitting room. Liam’s posture was relaxed, hands folded on his lap, but his eyes flicked toward the door as Ethan entered. Sharp, measured, watching.“Where have you been?” Liam asked, calm, but the faint tension in his voice betrayed his curiosity.“I went to see someone,” Ethan said simply, voice steady, careful, too measured. He didn’t meet Liam’s ey

The hallway smelled of antiseptic and sleeplessness. That sharp, clean scent that never quite felt clean when you’d been breathing it for days. Aria had stopped sitting hours ago. She stood now, back pressed to the wall, arms wrapped around herself like that was the only thing keeping her upright. Her knees trembled when she shifted her weight, but she didn’t sit. She couldn’t. Sitting felt too much like surrender. Mia paced. Three steps down. Three back. Again. Her shoes whispered against the floor, the sound soft but relentless. Lily slept curled in a chair, her thumb in her mouth, curls plastered to her cheek. Evan sat on the floor with his back against the wall, knees pulled to his chest, eyes too big for his small face. He watched the double doors like they might open and swallow him whole. Ethan stood apart from them all. Near the window. Hands shoved into his pockets. Shoulders tense. His reflection stared back at him in the glass—same sharp jaw as Liam, same dark hair, s