บททั้งหมดของ Mira Reckoning: Love, Lies and Inheritance: บทที่ 51 - บทที่ 60

Camille’s POVAdrian looked pale against the white hospital sheets.I sat beside Jessica on the chairs pulled up close to his bed and kept my eyes on his face, watching his chest rise and fall slowly, the drip running into his arm, the monitor beside him beeping. James had called Jessica this evening, his voice tight and clipped. Adrian had collapsed at the office and been rushed to the hospital. Come now, that was all he had managed before Jessica was already on her feet, grabbing her bag and telling me to get in the car, and I had followed without fully understanding what was happening.I still didn’t fully understand what had caused it.I had tried asking Jessica in the car on the way over, tried again sitting in the hospital corridor while we waited for the doctor to come out, tried once more sitting here beside his bed and every single time Jessica either shifted the subject or gave me something that sounded like an answer but wasn’t actually one, her eyes staying forward, her m

Mira’s POVI found a small restaurant close to the hospital and ordered food for Ann, but the whole time I stood there waiting, I was somewhere else entirely.My daughter. The thought had cracked open the moment I saw Fiona in that corridor, and it hadn’t closed since; it just kept spreading, quiet and relentless, filling every spare corner of my mind while I stood at the counter waiting for the order and staring at nothing.Was she okay? Was she in an orphanage somewhere, sleeping in a bed that wasn’t hers, surrounded by people who didn’t know her face the way a mother knew a face?Had someone adopted her already?Was she eating properly? Was she healthy? Was she happy? Did she cry at night? Did anyone hold her when she did?Was she even alive?I pressed my hand flat on the counter and breathed slowly through my nose and told myself to stop because stopping was the only option right now, I couldn’t do anything with these questions standing in a restaurant near a hospital, I couldn’t

Joseph’s POVI stared at the screen, Julie’s name sitting there flashing like she had all the time in the world and absolutely no awareness of what she had put me through today. I picked up anyway.“Why are you calling me right now….” It came out louder than I intended, and I caught myself immediately, looking up to find three people at nearby tables already turning their heads. I turned away from all of them and hunched my shoulder slightly, dropping my voice down, “What do you want, Julie?”“Come home.” She said, her voice unbothered, “I need to see you, it’s important.”“Everything is always important with you,” I said it more to myself than to her.“Joseph…”I ended the call before she could finish her words. Dropped the phone into my pocket and stood there for a second just breathing, then I turned back to the table where Fiona was sitting with her small hands wrapped around her cup, watching me with those wide eyes that took in everything without ever missing a single detail.

Mira’s POVI only came back to change my clothes. That was the plan, in and out, grab something clean, head straight back to Ann at the hospital, nothing complicated about it.I pushed the front door open and walked in, and the first thing I noticed was the quiet in the house. I looked toward the kitchen and saw Jessica was in there alone.She was moving things around slowly, which was strange enough on its own because Jessica had never voluntarily cooked anything in this house since the day she arrived; there were always maids around her doing things, so seeing her standing alone in a kitchen was the kind of detail that didn’t sit right.I filed it away and went upstairs.I showered quickly, changed into something fresh, grabbed my bag, and was heading back toward the stairs when I almost walked into James in the corridor.He looked up at me and something moved across his face immediately, something between relief and discomfort. “Ma’am,” he started.“James,” I kept moving, “where

Mira’s POVI pushed the door open and stepped inside before he could close it.Adrian had his hand on the door, and I could see the intention in it, to shut the world out, to shut everything out, including me, but I was already inside, and he didn’t have the energy to argue about it, so he let his hand fall.“I’m not here to talk,” I said quickly, before he could open his mouth, “I’m not here to communicate or go through anything, I just want to make sure you’re okay.”He looked at me for a second, then stepped back from the door.I crossed to him and took his arm carefully, guiding him toward the bed, and he let me do it, which told me more about how weak he still was than anything else could have.He sat on the edge of the bed instead of lying down, his elbows on his knees, his head slightly forward, and I stood in front of him and looked at his face properly. Then he looked up.“I didn’t expect her to do that,” his voice came out low and rough, something in it that wasn’t quite an