Todos os capítulos de To Him, We Were Never His: Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 10

As the tail lights of the final red rescue truck cut through the dark, I stepped right into Jordan Reid's path.I grabbed his wrist, my fingers trembling uncontrollably."Every single team is heading to the south side of Mount Sarthia? What about Eva? Layla's daughter has a clear GPS signal inside a safe campsite, but Eva's been missing for six hours. Why are you abandoning the child in actual danger?"Jordan yanked his arm free with an irritated frown. "I told you, dispatch controls where the units go. Precisely because Eva is my daughter, I can't abuse my authority."Always the same excuse.For eight years, whenever his first love, Layla Barton, and I both needed him, he'd pull out some bulletproof, self-righteous lecture.Now, he was using our daughter Eva Reid's survival to prove his moral purity.I stared at his cold side profile and finally voiced the question that had been eating at me for years. "Jordan, what is Layla to you?"Why is it that the second she sheds a tear,

Every eye in the group snapped to me.Homing was the codename I used back when I worked mountain rescue.I didn't waste time explaining. Tucking my soaked hair behind my ears, I quickly zoomed in on the map."Let's set up a search grid. The child's eight years old, wearing a yellow jacket. It rained briefly within the last six hours, so odds are she looked for shelter."I circled two spots on the map. "Low-lying ravines and the old patrol cabin are our highest probability zones."Derick cut in with a warning. "That ravine is going to flood fast, so we've only got an hour."Without another word, I climbed into the truck.The off-road vehicle crawled up the muddy mountain trail until we hit the patrol trail entrance.Sure enough, the iron barrier had collapsed into the weeds, and the yellow warning tape was shredded, fluttering violently in the wind.We moved in on foot.The trail was so slick after the rain that it was nearly impossible to keep our footing. I slipped twice, ja

Jordan's breath hitched.Without even taking off his rescue gear, he turned on his heel and bolted toward his truck.Layla ran after him, suddenly clutching her chest. "Jordan, I can't breathe. I think I'm having another attack. Could you come to the hospital with me?"Jordan paused for a split second.In the past, whenever she showed that fragile side of herself, he would always stay behind.This time, though, he pushed her hand away. "The vice captain will get you checked out. Eva's in surgery."He tore off in his truck.As Layla stood in the pouring rain, every trace of distress vanished from her face.She glared at his receding taillights, her fingernails digging deep into her palms.When Jordan rushed into the hospital, I was signing the surgery consent forms.The doctor told me that Eva was out of immediate danger, but her left leg needed surgery, and her auditory nerve had been damaged."She was brought in too late. Whether her hearing recovers depends on how she resp

Third-Person POVLayla's face paled slightly. "I'm a mother, and I was terrified. GPS isn't always accurate. What if Demi had been taken by a stranger?"Demi, who was sitting on the couch unwrapping a piece of candy, pouted in annoyance at Layla's words."Mom knew I was in the equipment tent the whole time. She was the one who told me not to come out. She said that if you brought your team, it would prove that you cared about us the most."The living room fell dead silent.Layla lunged forward to clap a hand over Demi's mouth. "Demi, stop lying!""I'm not lying!"Demi wrenched herself free from her grasp. "You even said Mrs. Reid loses every single time."The light in Jordan's eyes grew colder by the second.He had known Layla for over a decade.In his eyes, she was a vulnerable, fragile widow raising a daughter on her own, so she needed extra care.It had never occurred to him that beneath all those tears lay such calculated, manipulative games."You used the lives of two

I rented a two-bedroom apartment in Lindale. It wasn't huge. The balcony barely fit a single desk.Yet the moment the keys hit my hand, I felt for the first time that this place truly belonged to Eva and me.Eva picked a soft shade of blue for her bedroom walls.She covered them in star decals, saying if her ears couldn't hear, she could still watch the stars while falling asleep.I set up my workspace on the balcony, hanging my old, worn-out maps back on the wall.Nobody complained that the maps ruined the decor. And nobody demanded that Eva give up her favorite colors for Demi.We finally didn't have to shrink ourselves for anyone.The day I walked back into the National Emergency Technology Center, dozens of former colleagues gathered around.Some called me Ms. Palmer; others used the codename I hadn't heard in years."Homing, welcome back."I thought I'd be thrilled, but when I finally sat down at the workstation, all I felt was a hollow sense of disorientation.Eight ye