Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 231 - Chapitre 236

The room was dark and lit only by a thin strip of moonlight that fell across the floor, and for one breathless moment Maya could not tell what she was looking at.A lamp lay smashed near the wall with glass scattered around it while the sheets on the large bed had been torn from their corners and twisted into tight knots. In the middle of all the ruined fabric Zane was thrashing, his head rolling frantically from side to side against the pillow while his hands clawed at the blankets and tears leaked from the corners of his closed eyes to run straight into his hair."Stop," he was saying as his voice cracked apart. "Please, stop. It hurts."Maya stood frozen in the doorway with her hand still glued to the handle.It was not the voice she knew because the cold, even tone he used for everything had completely vanished, and in its place was something young and terrified, the helpless voice of a small boy begging someone who would not listen. Her heart twisted so hard inside her that she p

Maya ran the entire way home.She didn't stop for the crosswalk light, didn't slow down when her heels caught on the uneven pavement, didn't think about anything except getting back to the house before her courage completely crumbled. By the time she walked through the gates, her chest was heaving with harsh, shallow breaths, tears blurring her vision as her makeup smeared beneath her eyes, but she didn't care about any of it.The house was deathly quiet when she stepped inside, the staff having already turned in for the evening, leaving the grand hallways lit in low, golden shadows. She glanced towards his room and noticed a single slice of light cut through the dark from beneath his door.She climbed the stairs slowly, every step heavy with everything she now knew.Her bag slipped from her shoulder along the landing and fell with a soft thud, but she left it behind without a second thought. Standing outside his door, her heart hammered against her ribs so hard it was almost deafen

The hospital waiting room was bright, the harsh glare of the fluorescent lights shining where the family sat scattered across the cold plastic chairs in a heavy, aching silence, every eye fixed on the double doors that led back to surgery.Claire had not stopped crying since the ambulance, sitting tightly pressed against Jeff's side with her hands gripping his arm so hard her knuckles had gone stark white, and Jeff held onto her with that same desperate, trembling need while they both stared into nothing, terrified of what a doctor might say about either of their children.Across from them sat Lisa, her dress ruined and stained dark down one side where she had knelt beside Adrian in the garden grass, her hands pressed desperately over her mouth as silent tears ran steadily down her cheeks.Zane stood completely apart from all of them, having refused the chair someone offered, having turned away the paper cup of coffee, standing rigid near the far wall with his shirt still soaked throu