Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 141 - Chapitre 150

Emma stood close to her foster mother’s side and looked at the three strangers without speaking.She was smaller than the pictures in Jax’s mind had allowed her to be. Her hair was pulled back in a simple band. Her light blue shirt was neat. Her eyes moved carefully from face to face curious, serious, not yet ready to offer anything more.Jax felt the floor tilt under him for a second. He locked his knees and stayed standing. His hands hung useless at his sides. He had practiced what he might say a hundred times on the drive, and every practiced sentence left him at once.The foster mother kept her hand lightly on Emma’s shoulder. “This is Jax,” she said, voice calm and clear. “He’s the one who wrote the letter you read. And this is Lily-Rose, and Jimmy.”Emma’s gaze settled on Jax and stayed there. She did not smile. She did not look away either.“Hi,” Jax managed. The word came out rougher than he wanted. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Hello, Emma.”She gave a small nod, th

The truck felt different on the way back.The same seats. The same road. The same afternoon light slanting across the fields. But everything inside the cab sat heavier, as if the meeting had added weight none of them could put down.Jax drove with both hands on the wheel, eyes fixed on the asphalt. He had not said much since they left the community building. Every few minutes his jaw tightened, then eased, as if he was replaying the same moments over and over Emma’s careful questions, the way she had looked at him when she asked if he was going to leave again, the small nod when she agreed to a longer visit.Lily-Rose sat in the passenger seat watching the countryside move past. She kept her hands folded in her lap. The silence between them was not empty. It was full of everything that had just happened and everything that still waited ahead.Jimmy leaned against the back window, arms crossed, eyes half-closed. He was the first to speak.“She liked the idea of the orchard,” he said qu

The park sat on the edge of town, green and open under a soft sky. A playground stood at one end swings, a low climbing frame, a slide that shone dully in the light. Benches lined the path. A few other families moved in the distance, their voices carrying faintly on the breeze.Jax parked the truck and sat for a moment with his hands on the wheel. Lily-Rose unbuckled her seatbelt but didn’t open the door right away. Jimmy leaned forward between the seats.“Same rules as last time,” he said quietly. “Let her lead.”Jax nodded. The three of them got out and walked toward the meeting spot the investigator had described a picnic table near the edge of the playground, far enough from the busiest equipment to feel private.They arrived first again.Emma and her foster mother appeared ten minutes later. Emma wore a yellow shirt this time—bright against the green of the grass. Her hair was pulled back the same simple way. She saw them and slowed for half a step, then kept coming.The first gr

The farmhouse looked the same when they pulled into the driveway.White walls. Dark windows. The orchard stretching out behind it in the late light. Nothing had changed on the outside. Everything had changed on the inside of the truck.Jax turned off the engine and sat for a moment with his hands still on the wheel. The drawing Emma had given him rested on the dashboard, edges slightly curled from the afternoon air. He reached for it carefully, as if it might dissolve if he moved too fast.Jimmy opened his door first. “I’ll start something for supper,” he said, and headed toward the house without waiting for an answer. He understood when space was needed.Lily-Rose and Jax followed more slowly. The gravel under their shoes sounded louder than usual. At the front steps Jax paused and looked up at the second-floor windows. The prepared room was up there, neat bed and blue blanket and empty shelf still facing the trees. For weeks that room had held only hope. Now it held something sharpe

The call came on a quiet Thursday morning.Jax was in the kitchen rinsing his coffee mug when the phone rang. He answered on the second ring, still half-turned toward the window. Lily-Rose looked up from the table. Jimmy set down the book he had been pretending to read.The investigator’s voice was calm.“The foster family has agreed to a longer visit. A weekend at your place, if you’re still open to it. They’ll bring Emma Friday afternoon and pick her up Sunday after lunch. Nothing overnight beyond that for now. They want to see how she does in the house and the space.”Jax stood very still with the phone against his ear.“Yes,” he said. “We’re open to it.”“I’ll send over the details and the guidelines. They’ll expect the same careful approach you’ve shown so far.”“Of course.”When the call ended, Jax set the phone down carefully, the way he had the first time news like this arrived. He looked at Lily-Rose, then at Jimmy.“She’s coming here,” he said. The words sounded almost unrea