Chapter 188
Chapter 189
ROSEMARY
Two nights. That’s all it had taken for everything to unravel.
58
Two nights ago, life had still been manageable. Fractured, yes. Messy, always. But we were together, still holding the illusion that the worst had passed. Now…? Now I was watching it all bleed into chaos, standing in a hospital where too many people I loved were fighting battles with their bodies, their minds, their ghosts.
Venus sedated. Aaron on an operating table. Sabine in the trauma unit. Connor half out of his mind, trying to be everywhere at once.
And me? I had to be strong for all of them.
I said it in my head like a vow, but the truth was-it was cracking me.
I sat forward on the hard plastic chair outside the OR, my elbows on my knees, fingers steepled like a prayer I wasn’t sure God was still listening to. My heart thudded in my throat, a dull, sick rhythm that refused to settle.
I was worried for my son-my boy who thought he was too strong to die, too stubborn to yield. Worried for Venus, for the lives growing inside her, for the way trauma might eat her alive even if her body survived. And Sabine-sweet Sabine-was presently in the trauma unit, her wounds attended to, but her mind still at war. They’d put her in counseling immediately. Connor refused to leave her side completely, splitting himself between sitting at her bed and waiting outside Aaron’s OR. His face looked carved from stone, but his eyes betrayed him. It was red-rimmed and wild.
They all needed me. So I held myself upright, spine straight, jaw tight, even when my insides felt like glass shattering with every passing second.
My phone vibrated in my lap, pulling me back. The screen lit up with a name that made my stomach twist.
Dorian.
He’d been here earlier, hovering in the shadows of the waiting room like a storm cloud that couldn’t decide where to break. Then he’d slipped away, muttering about something urgent.
Now his name pulsed on my screen,
I stood quickly, excusing myself from Gianna’s murmured prayers and Colton’s grim silence. Venus was still sedated, safely tucked under Gianna and Colton’s watch. She wouldn’t be alone.
I answered as I walked down the sterile hallway, voice low. “Dorian p>
On the other end, his voice was tight, frayed. “Rosemary. Come down to the canteen. Now. I need to show you something p>
Something in his tone made my pulse jump. This wasn’t casual. This wasn’t about him escaping the waiting room tension. This was… heavier.
20:50 Wed, Jan 14 p>
Chapter 189
ନୂ ବୃ 58)
I took the elevator, descending floor by floor, the fluorescent lights flickering too bright, reflecting in steel that made my reflection look older, more brittle.
When I entered the hospital canteen, I spotted him immediately. Dorian sat at a corner table, untouched coffee in front of him, his broad shoulders hunched, his expression carved in solemn lines that made him look far older than he was.
He didn’t greet me with his usual sharp remark. Didn’t smirk. Didn’t posture. Instead, he slid a folder across the table the moment I sat down.
“Police formalities,” he said, voice low, clipped. “They raided the place Gerald had been hiding these last few months. Found his phone. Transcripts. Footage p>
My stomach clenched, but I reached for the folder, hands steady even as my heart rattled in my chest.
Inside were printouts. Logs of calls. Text messages. And one name repeated far too often for my eyes to believe.
Caroline Sinclair.
My breath hitched. My throat went dry.
Beside the transcripts was a still frame from surveillance footage. The image was grainy, but unmistakable— Caroline, her posture rigid, her face hidden under a scarf and dark glasses. Standing across from Gerald.
My mind spun.
“What is this?” I demanded, my voice sharper than I intended, but fear and fury surged together in me, tightening every word.
Dorian’s eyes lifted to mine, haunted but steady. “The police are still investigating. But the facts are facts. Gerald contacted her. She visited him weeks before the kidnapping. She knew, Rosemary. Maybe not everything, but she knew p>
Caroline Sinclair. Again had been messing with my life as if ruining my life and messing with my boy hadn’t been enough. She took it farther this time.
I won’t let her get away with it like she did the last time.
Dorian carefully observed my reaction.
It was his mother who had a hand in his sister’s kidnapping. He hides what he feels so well. I couldn’t tell what his was thinking,
I pressed my palm against my lips, shutting down the scream that wanted to rip free.
How had everything gone so wrong in just two nights?
My fingers gripped the edge of the folder so tightly the paper bit into my skin. I should’nt feel shock, disbelief-something raw and unmoored. But no. What I felt was a cold, steady rage. The kind that didn’t burn, didn’t crackle, didn’t need to shout. The kind that settled in the marrow and turned to steel.
20:50 Wed, Jan 14 &
Chapter 189
Caroline Sinclair.
58
The name hissed in my head like poison. A viper coiling tighter, closer, waiting to strike again. She’d already taken too much from us-my boy, my family, all the fractures we’d been patching with trembling hands. And now this. She hadn’t just hovered in the shadows. She’d stepped straight into the fire and fed it.
I lifted my gaze to Dorian. He didn’t flinch under the weight of my stare. His jaw was tight, his eyes bloodshot, but his face was carved into the kind of mask only years of practice could build.
“Do you believe it?” I asked, my voice low, deliberate. “Truly? Or is this another one of her games p>
He exhaled, long and hard, then leaned back in his chair. “I don’t want to believe it. God knows I don’t want to believe my own mother is this vile. But I can’t argue with evidence, Rosemary. The calls are real. The visits are real. Gerald didn’t have the imagination to fake this, and the police aren’t in the mood for Sinclair theatrics. Not this time p>
Not this time.
I pressed my palm to the table, grounding myself. For a moment, silence hung heavy between us, filled only by the hum of vending machines and the faint clatter of a nurse grabbing tea across the room. Normal sounds, ordinary sounds, in the middle of a warzone disguised as a hospital.
My voice came out sharper than I intended. “And you’ve told no one else p>
His brows furrowed. “Who am I supposed to tell? Connor, while he’s pacing himself into the ground outside the OR? Sabine, while she’s barely holding herself together in the trauma unit? Venus, who doesn’t even know if Aaron will open his eyes again p>
Every name hit like a hammer. He was right. But it didn’t calm me-it only made the fury coil tighter in my
gut.
“So you told me,” I said flatly.
“Yes.” He leaned forward, lowering his voice. “Because you’ll know what to do. You don’t panic, Rosemary. You don’t play games. And I’m done playing games p>
He wasn’t wrong.
I closed the folder, my fingers trembling for the first time all night. I couldn’t let him see it. Couldn’t let anyone see the crack.
Two nights. That’s all it had taken. Two nights to undo the fragile peace we’d built, to scatter us across this hospital, every one of us bleeding in different ways.
Caroline Sinclair had lit the match.
And I-God help me-I was going to make sure she burned for it.
20:50 Wed, Jan 14
Ruby Walker
Ruby Walker is a rising voice in the world of romance and spicy fiction. With a gift for weaving deep emotions, sizzling chemistry, and unexpected twists, her stories are a blend of passion and drama that captivate readers from start to finish. Ruby’s writing style is bold and irresistible—perfect for those who crave intense, addictive love stories.