All Chapters of Discarded by My Family, I Proved Them Wrong: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

The Dominique Mansion felt different that afternoon.The smell of medicine and snuffed candles that had lingered in the second-floor corridor for weeks was gone. In its place, the scent of white roses and lilies filled the living room, cold and sweet, like something forced upon a house so that it might learn to breathe again. On a long table draped in white cloth beside the great window, a photograph of Elsie in a silver frame stood among small candles, smiling faintly at a room she no longer inhabited.Sera stood there, arranging stem after stem of flowers into a crystal vase with slow, patient hands. Her face was no longer as pale as in the days of the funeral, but her eyes still held a swelling that would not fade, and each time her fingers touched a lily petal, her movements slowed like someone holding back something that threatened to spill over."Mama."The voice was soft and slightly hoarse. Sera turned. Elara stood in the doorway of the living room in a dark coat, a bunch of w

"Doctor!"The scream split the silence of the residence like shattering glass.In the kitchen, Sean, who had been pouring hot water into a porcelain teapot, nearly dropped the whole thing. The pot clinked against the table, boiling water splashing onto the back of his hand, yet he felt nothing. He was already running before the echo of that voice had faded, down the corridor that was still dark, shoving the bedroom door open with his shoulder."Valena! What is it?"The girl sat bolt upright in the middle of the bed, the blanket thrown aside, both hands clutching the sheet until it wrinkled. Her body shook violently. Her eyes were wide and wet, staring at something that was not in the room, and her breath came short and ragged, like someone who had just been dragged out from the bottom of the water."Valena."Sean was already kneeling beside the bed. Two fingers moved automatically to the girl's wrist, feeling the pulse racing wildly beneath cold, damp skin. But before he could say ano

Chapter 55Three days later, Mr. Greene kept his promise.He booked a plane ticket to Machrie Terrai Aveneu in secret, under the name of a mountain clinic in the north that he visited every year for his heart examination. No one in his office suspected a thing. When he took his leave of Radic Cousin that morning with a weary face and a feigned cough, the young secretary only nodded politely and switched on his computer with fingers that were slightly too nimble.But Aldens Greene had not survived forty years in the world of law without learning to read people. He knew exactly who would contact whom the moment his back disappeared behind the elevator doors.At the airport, he was not alone. Two men in gray jackets sat on opposite sides of the waiting area, one reading a newspaper whose pages he never turned, the other busy with his phone. Rafael had arranged it. Meanwhile, across the city, a courier in a neat suit, paid by Rafael, delivered a false file to the office of Greene and Asso

"Marta?"Sean answered before the second ring had finished. His voice was calm, but his chest had already turned hard as iron."Doctor..." Marta's voice broke on the other end, her breath ragged, and behind her came the crackle of burning wood. "There's a fire. From the back, from the pier. I smelled the smoke earlier, but only now has the fire spread to the kitchen. Director Voss's officers are putting it out, but...""Where is Valena?""With me. In the bedroom. Doctor, the smoke is coming in...""Get her out right now. Through the front door. Don't wait for anyone." Sean was already running toward the stairs of the monitoring room, Voss and the head of security hurrying behind him. "I'm coming. Fifteen minutes."The call ended. There was no time for anything else.\*\*\*The road to the lakeshore seemed endless.Sean's car shot through turn after turn at a speed he had never used in his life, while Voss, seated in the passenger seat with a radio in his hand, gave short, calm orders

On the fifth floor of Terrai Medical Center, a treatment room with soft lighting and ivory-colored walls held two beds. In one, Marta slept with a neat bandage on the back of her hand. In the other, Valena lay with a thin oxygen tube beneath her nose, the blanket drawn up to her chest, her face pale yet calm in the glow of the night lamp.Sean sat in a chair at her bedside, still wearing the coat that smelled of smoke. In his hand were a clinical chart and a pen he had not used in the past hour. Now and then his eyes shifted to the monitor beside the bed, oxygen saturation, heart rate, respiratory rate, then returned to the sleeping face. Every steady number loosened his chest a little.The clock pointed to two in the morning."Doctor..."The voice was so weak it was almost inaudible. Sean straightened at once. Valena had opened her eyes, halfway, and looked at him with a gaze clouded by the remnants of the sedative."I'm here." Sean took the small hand lying limp on the blanket. "How