جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 30

Noah's POVI have testified in court more times than I can count. Armed robbery, domestic violence, kidnapping and even homicide.I've stood in witness boxes while defence attorneys tried to tear apart months of investigations. I've answered questions with grieving families watching me from the gallery. I've testified against men who smiled at me like they already knew where I lived.None of it had ever made my hands sweat, until today.The courtroom felt smaller than it actually was, not because of the walls but because she was sitting ten feet away.Karma Kuntz. Dark suit, hair pulled neatly back. Back perfectly straight despite the weight resting on her shoulders.She looked composed. She always did.If someone had never met her, they would think she was calm, I knew better.The tiny movement of her thumb against her index finger, the way she pressed her tongue briefly against the inside of her cheek and her fractionally deeper breaths.She was frightened, not visibly, not enough f

Karma's POVOne month later...People always assumed that life stopped when someone was standing trial for murder. It didn't, life had the audacity to continue.Patients still arrived at the emergency room, children still cried after getting stitches. Mothers still waited anxiously outside operating theatres. Surgeons still scrubbed in, made incisions, closed wounds and moved on to the next case as though the world outside those walls wasn't threatening to collapse.I never stopped doing what I did best, saving lives. The case couldn't stop me.Some days I almost forgot there was a fourth and final court hearing waiting for me.Almost."Dr. Kuntz, the patient in Theatre Three is ready." A nurse said to me. "I'll be there in two minutes." The nurse hurried away while I stood in front of the sink, scrubbing my hands with practiced precision.My reflection stared back at me through the glass. I looked... tired, not physically but emotionally.A month of waiting for a verdict did that to

Karma's POVThe drive back to my apartment was unusually quiet, not uncomfortable, just filled with calm quietness.The kind of silence that came after something neither of us knew how to undo. My fingers drifted unconsciously to my lips. I could still feel him.Noah Adler had kissed me, in front of an entire courtroom.Lawyers.Reporters.Police officers.My own legal team.Everyone.Every now and then I caught him stealing a glance at me before quickly returning his attention to the road. I was doing the exact same thing although neither of us spoke for almost ten minutes.The city lights slipped past the windows, painting brief flashes across his face, and I found myself staring longer than I should.His jaw was tight. One hand rested confidently on the steering wheel while the other drummed lightly against his thigh.I wondered what those hands would feel like holding me and caressing me. The thought arrived so suddenly that I turned my face toward the window before I embarrassed

Karma's POVI used to think healing was something that happened in hospitals, a wound closed, or fever broke, a heartbeat steadied.Simple.Clinical.Measurable.Then Noah Adler not only walked into my life but chose to be a part of my life and I realized healing could also look like a man waiting outside your hospital at six in the evening because he knew you'd forgotten to eat lunch.It could look like someone remembering how you took your coffee.Or sending a message that simply read:Finished work? Have you eaten?No unnecessary words, just concern.Somewhere between my court hearings and endless surgeries, he had quietly become my favorite part of every day."You have Saturday off," Noah said one Thursday evening.I blinked."I do?" I asked him, slightly surprised that he knows this."You do.""How do you know my schedule?"He smiled. "You complained about it on Tuesday.""I did?""You said—and I quote—'If one more surgeon calls in sick, I'll start operating on myself.'"I covere

Karma's POVThree days.Three entire days, and I had become remarkably skilled at avoiding Noah Adler. If he called, I answered hours later with an excuse about surgeries. If he texted, I replied with one-word responses that looked polite enough to avoid suspicion but distant enough to keep him from asking questions. If there was even the slightest chance our schedules would overlap, I suddenly discovered a dozen reasons to be somewhere else.It was childish, I knew it, but it was easier than facing him. Because seeing him meant remembering.Remembering the way he had looked at me that night. The way he had held me afterward as though I was something precious instead of something broken. The way I had left before sunrise because staying felt infinitely more terrifying than walking away. I had spent my entire life convincing myself that I did not need anyone.Then Noah Adler had somehow slipped past every defense I had ever built, and now I was terrified. Not of him, but of myself.Bec