Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 541 - Chapitre 550

ELLISBefore I lost my nerve... again, I swung the door open.The familiar smell of disinfectant hit me right away, along with the steady beeping of the heart monitor, which I somehow found oddly comforting.Sunlight flooded the small room through a large window, casting a warm golden light that made the space feel almost inviting, like somewhere you’d actually want to be, rather than a hospital room.My dad looked up from the crossword he was working on, his pen frozen mid-air as if he’d forgotten what he was doing.When he caught sight of me, his face lit up."Ollie!"A smile broke out on my face before I even realized it, it was like a switch flipped the moment he said my name."Hey, Dad."He looked better than he had a week ago. Sure, he was still thinner than I remembered from a few months back, and there were shadows under his eyes that hadn’t faded yet, but there was just a bit more color in his cheeks.I held onto that feeling for a moment before anything else could crowd it o

JULIAN Julian hadn’t expected a hospital room to have this much life in it. The space was small, pale cream walls, a clock ticking just a bit too loudly on the left, and a haphazard row of get-well cards taped next to the window, their envelopes wrinkled from handling. A vase of fresh flowers sat on the bedside table beside an old mystery novel, their petals catching the afternoon sunlight, almost softening the sharp antiseptic smell that seemed to cling to places like this. In the background, the heart monitor kept its steady rhythm, like a metronome no one had agreed to, but everyone had gotten used to. Julian scanned the room. Then he focused on the man inside it. Frank Carter had that special quality of someone who’s been through a lot but still comes out warm rather than worn down. He was thinner and paler than he should be, shadows lurking under his eyes showing months of tough nights. Yet, when he looked at his son, his face showed the look of someone who’s found

ELLISI turned to him, eyes wide and panicked, as if he’d just thrown me under the bus. "Would you stop encouraging—""She’s already gone," he said, shrugging it off.I leaned my forehead against the table for a moment, quickly regretting it given the number of stories absorbed by that surface over the years. I sat back up and focused on my coffee instead."I need to move to another country," I said."I’ll come with you."I looked at him, surprised."...You would?""Of course." He delivered it like a simple truth, without needing to elaborate.Something about the word of course lingered with me as we settled into the booth, the coffee transitioning from hot to warm and the fries disappearing between us in an almost fair, though sometimes disputed, fashion.Outside, the sky deepened, colors shifting from amber and pink to a richer blue as the street transformed from afternoon bustle to evening calm, shop windows lighting up one by one.We weren’t in any hurry.There was no reason to be

This time, they were inside a diner, the warm evening light filtering through the window, making everything seem more significant than it might under the noontime glare. They sat across from each other, a basket of food between them.The young man animatedly spoke, one hand gesturing as he made his point. Julian, meanwhile, watched him with the kind of attention reserved for something genuinely interesting, not the polite focus one maintains for conversation, but the involuntary gaze of someone captivated.Another photograph. The young man looked up at Julian, his expression so openly trusting and unguarded that it seemed to capture a private moment without either party realizing it.It reflected someone who had stopped worrying about safety and simply felt it.Mrs. Cross’s grip tightened almost imperceptibly on the edge of the photograph.There was Julian, her son...the heir to everything she and her husband had fiercely protected...all smiles with this boy she’d never seen before.I

ELLISAs I rinsed his hair carefully, I could sense a shift in the air, something new yet familiar.I noticed it first in how my hands slowed down, almost instinctively lingering at the base of his neck before tracing down to the curve of his shoulder.My curiosity had definitely grown...a whole lot bolder over the past month.I felt how his breathing changed, drawing in deeper breaths that made his chest rise under my palms as my fingers continued to explore his skin, gliding over the subtle contours of his muscles that tightened then relaxed beneath my touch.Without missing a beat, he tilted his head back against my shoulder, giving me easier access.There was a quiet thrill in that simple act of trust, mixing with the humor from earlier when I accidentally got shampoo everywhere."Careful," he said softly, his voice lower than it had been, "or I might start thinking you’re trying to seduce me on purpose."I let my hands roam slowly over his chest, feeling his heartbeat quicken ben