All Chapters of He Fell in Love After I Got Cancer: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The hearth crackled, but the room remained cold.Emerie stood in the foyer, the door closing behind her with a final click. Her fingers were stiff around the divorce scroll, its ribbon still taut. She exhaled into the silence.The house smelled like lavender and smoke—Jolene’s favorite candle, no doubt. The irony didn’t escape her.She turned toward the study. Allan’s voice greeted her first, echoing from the crystal recorder.“Staying over. Jolene’s nausea hit hard tonight. Don’t wait up.”Emerie tapped the crystal off.“I won’t,” she said to the quiet.She moved through the house like a ghost—each footstep soft, deliberate. In the kitchen, she filled the kettle, then stopped. Her hands trembled. She dropped the tea bag into a cup and leaned on the counter.The scent of ginger rose faintly.“It won’t help,” she murmured to herself.From the dining hall came muffled laughter—memories, not sound. She saw herself at twenty, sitting across from Allan, eyes fi

“Allan, she’s gone.”The words came from Kalen, blunt and final.Allan looked up from his desk. “What do you mean, gone?”“She left this morning. Through the east gates. Bag on her shoulder, no escort.”“Why didn’t anyone stop her?”“She’s not Luna anymore,” Kalen said quietly.Allan stood, the chair scraping behind him. “She didn’t even leave a note?”“She left this.” Kalen slid a folded parchment across the desk.The Storm Ridge crest glinted in the top corner—official.Allan unfolded the divorce scroll. Emerie’s signature stared back at him in calm, unwavering ink.No hesitation. No flourish.“She meant it,” Allan muttered.Kalen hesitated. “There’s something else you should know.”“What now?”“She’s... not well.”Allan’s head snapped up. “Explain.”“She gave me her diagnosis scroll. I wasn’t supposed to tell you, but I—look, she’s sick. Blood-curse. Advanced stage.”Allan’s stomach dropped. “That’s not possible.”“I saw her coll

“Sir, we need you in the great hall. The harpists are waiting to rehearse.”Allan didn’t move.He stood at the window of his chamber, staring at the gray sky. Snow clung to the eaves. Wind scraped frost across the panes.“Sir?” the steward repeated.“I’ll be down in a minute,” Allan muttered.The door clicked shut behind the retreating steps.---Downstairs, Jolene was already holding court.The great hall glittered with blush peonies, lace banners, and golden filigree candles. Servants adjusted floral arches while the harpists strummed softly.“Does the ivory lace clash with the pearl trim?” Jolene asked, twirling in her silk rehearsal gown.“No, Lady Jolene,” her seamstress said, pinning fabric. “It’s perfect.”Jolene smiled, then spotted Allan descending the stairs. “There you are! I thought you’d run off.”He didn’t smile back. “Just needed air.”She approached and looped her arm through his. “Don’t be nervous. After tomorrow, everything will

“You’re not riding anywhere like this,” Albert said.Emerie leaned against a pine trunk, blood seeping through the bandage he’d just tied. “I can still walk.”“You nearly passed out twice.”“I didn’t pass out. I sat down too fast.”Albert raised an eyebrow.“Fine,” she muttered. “I *almost* passed out.”He stood and offered her a hand. “The cabin’s fifteen minutes that way. We’ll move slow.”“I’m not going back.”He didn’t flinch. “Where, then?”“I don’t know,” she whispered. “But if I stop now, I’ll never move again.”Albert’s jaw worked, like he was biting back ten different arguments. Then he exhaled. “Alright. We’ll walk.”---Allan stood in Greywood Hospital’s corridor, clutching Emerie’s patient file.“She came in three times,” the healer said, flipping through records. “Didn’t want anyone notified. Paid in full. Never complained.”Allan’s voice was hoarse. “She told no one?”“She asked me if six months was enough time to matter,” the

“Is it always this quiet up here?”Emerie stood at the edge of the mesa, the wind gently tousling her hair. Below, Thunder Paw spread out like a secret kingdom—terraced gardens blooming with moonflowers, glimmering pools reflecting the cloudy sky.Albert stood beside her, arms crossed loosely. “Quiet until it’s not. We don’t need noise to prove strength.”She nodded slowly. “It feels... untouched.”“That’s the idea,” he said. “No council. No politics. Just balance.”“And if balance breaks?”“Then we fix it ourselves.”She studied the paths that twisted through the settlement. Pups darted between trees, warriors trained at the far field, elders sipped tea beneath sun-warmed stone.“This doesn’t look like a place that would take in an outsider.”Albert looked at her. “They didn’t take in an outsider. They took in *you*.”She turned to him. “Why?”“Because you didn’t come asking for favors. You came ready to stand on your own feet.”She snorted. “I coll