flash
Vivian Carter, now Dr. Vivian Carter, stood in the bustling corridor of St. Jude’s Community Clinic, her white coat flapping against her knees. Her stethoscope hung around her neck like a protective talisman. On her desk sat a framed photograph: a little boy with dark, chaotic hair and eyes the exact shade of slate-gray rain over Lake Michigan. / Chapter 3 / 10

Chapter 3 - Echoes in the Hallway"Leo!"

A sharp, breathless voice cut through the hum of the waiting room.

Adrian looked up from where he knelt. Cutting through the swinging double doors of the triage unit was a woman in a crisp white doctor’s coat. Her hair was pulled back into a severe knot, just like it had been six years ago under the grand chandeliers of the Meridian Grand Hotel.

Time had only sharpened her beauty, hardening the soft edges of her youth into something fierce, unbreakable, and terrifyingly radiant.

Vivian stopped dead in her tracks.

The charts in her arms slipped, scattering across the linoleum floor with a loud, clattering slap. But neither of them moved to pick them up.

"Adrian," she whispered. The name sounded like glass breaking.

Adrian stood up slowly, his knees trembling. The five years of rage, guilt, searching, and empty whiskey glasses collapsed into a single, agonizing second.

"You..." Adrian choked out, taking a step forward. "You were here. All this time, you were two hours away."

"Don't you dare," Vivian hissed, her professional veneer shattering instantly. She dropped to her knees, not to pick up the charts, but to pull Leo tightly against her chest, shielding him with her body as if Adrian were a predator. "Don't you dare walk into my hospital, into my life, after everything your family did."

"My family didn't do this—I did!" Adrian’s voice cracked, drawing the eyes of every nurse and patient in the lobby. He didn't care. He stepped closer, his hands balling into fists at his sides. "Do you have any idea what I went through? I tore my life apart for you, Vivian! I walked away from everything!"

"And you left me alone!" Vivian screamed back, hot tears finally spilling over her lashes. "You stood in my kitchen and told me you weren't ready! You let your mother buy me out like trash!"

"I didn't know!" Adrian shouted, his voice breaking entirely, the tears carving hot paths down his face. "She hid it from me! By the time I found out, you had vanished into thin air!"

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The heavy mahogany door of the dressing room seemed to close in on us, trapping the suffocating tension inside. Richard’s hands were shaking as he clutched the small, tarnished silver pendant. His knuckles were bone-white.

The heavy mahogany door of the dressing room seemed to close in on us, t...

The heavy silver fork slipped from my fingers, clattering sharply against the gold-rimmed porcelain of my dinner plate.

The heavy silver fork slipped from my fingers, clattering sharply agains...

The heavy mahogany door of the Fairmont Copley suite clicked shut with a muffled, expensive thud.

The heavy mahogany door of the Fairmont Copley suite clicked shut with a...

Leo looked up at his mother, his small hand patting her cheek. "Mommy, why is the sad man crying?"

Vivian’s breath hitched. She looked down at her son, then back up at Adrian, her expression a battlefield of unhealed wounds.

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