Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 91 - Chapitre 95

I stood outside the door of Room 408, my hand resting on the cold metal handle, while a chaotic storm of memories battered the inside of my brain.*Why are we even here?* I thought, a bitter taste rising in the back of my throat. *Why does my father care so much about a woman who abandoned us when I was barely out of diapers just to chase runway lights in Milan?*I still vividly remembered being a desperate, crying five-year-old, wrapping my tiny arms around her designer suitcase, begging her with all my little heart not to go. And I remembered the cold way she had peeled my fingers off her coat, kissed my forehead like an acquaintance saying goodbye at a bus stop, and walked out of our lives.The only time she ever reappeared was on my father’s last birthday,just long enough to drop off an overpriced, impersonal gift before jetting off to her next career-defining photoshoot like a glamorous ghost.And yet... as I pushed the door open with Aaron right by my side, the sight of her hit

"Jessica, go home. You look like a beautiful, highly stressed ghost," my father said, gently squeezing my shoulders in the quiet hospital corridor.The doctor had just announced that only one relative was permitted to stay in the ICU overnight while they prepared Henrietta for her surgery tomorrow, and my father had immediately volunteered to hold down the fort."Dad, I don't want to leave," I protested, my eyes darting toward the doors of Room 408. "What if something happens during the night? What if..""Nothing is going to happen," Noah interrupted softly, offering a tired, reassuring smile. "I'm going to sit right in that uncomfortable plastic chair, drink terrible hospital coffee, and make sure she stays breathing. You and Aaron have been flying across the globe for hours. Go home, get some sleep, and come back first thing in the morning."I had a million questions burning a hole through my tongue. I wanted to ask him why he never told me about Henrietta's diagnosis. I wanted to a

Not only had the bastard blocked the number on WhatsApp, he had completely, trace-lessly scrubbed Nicholas out of my main contacts.*What was I supposed to do now?!*Just thirty minutes ago on the private jet, I had been soft. I had been stupid. I had actually sat there in his lap, feeling the warm rise and fall of his chest, wishing in some deep, pathetic corner of my brain that we could just stay suspended in the clouds forever.I had even caught myself reminiscing about our freshman year of college, back when Aaron was the star player on the university basketball team,the insufferable, gorgeous school heartthrob who made every girl in a three-mile radius lose her mind. He had picked on me constantly, but back then, I was so hopelessly infatuated that my brain didn't even process his insults as toxic.I distinctly remembered one afternoon when he blocked my path in the hallway, looked at my layered dark outfit, and smirked.“Dressed for Halloween early, shorty?" Aaron had drawled wh