جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 74

{Morningstar}The doors had been closed for too long.I didn’t measure the time.Not by minutes. Not by anything I could name.But I knew it.I had been standing in the same place when they took her in, watching those doors as though they would open simply because I hadn’t looked away long enough. At some point, that stopped being enough.So I moved.The corridor stretched out in both directions, long and sterile, the light overhead too bright to soften anything it touched. I walked without choosing a direction, my steps steady at first, then slower, then picking up again without reason.There were people around.I noticed them.A man seated with his head bowed, his hands clasped so tightly his knuckles had gone pale. A woman pacing a few steps ahead, stopping every few seconds as though she expected something to change if she waited long enough.Voices moved through the space in low tones. Nurses passed by with purpose, their attention fixed on things that had nothing to do with me.

{Morningstar}The doors opened.Everything else fell away.The voices in the corridor, the movement, the quiet hum of the hospital— none of it held long enough to matter. Attention shifted all at once, drawn toward the same point, held there by the man stepping out from behind those doors.It was the same doctor.The one who had told me to stay back.He didn’t rush. Didn’t slow either. His pace was steady in a way that suggested control, but not certainty. That difference settled before he spoke.“She’s stable.”The words landed cleanly and for a second, nothing followed them.Not relief.Not movement.Just a pause long enough to understand what had been said.My shoulders eased slightly before I noticed it, the tension that had been sitting there loosening just enough to shift.Then he continued.“She was severely dehydrated. Exhaustion as well. Her system was under strain and there were also traces of infection.”His gaze held mine as he spoke, not confrontational, but direct.“As a