Chapter 162
No.1
The words hung in the air, cold and final. August's face turned a mottled, ugly shade of purple. The veins in his neck bulged against his collar.
Behind him, Allena grabbed the fabric of his suit jacket. She twisted the expensive wool in her fists,burying her face against his spine.
"August, please," Allena sobbed, her voice trembling with perfectly calibrated terror. "Take me away from here. She's completely lost her mind. She's going to hurt me again."
She pressed closer to him, using her body to physically pull his attention away from Elisa and back to her own fabricated victimhood.
A few feet away, Tate was watching the adults scream. The boy looked at Dr. Blevins, who was glaring at him with a terrifying, thunderous expression. Panic finally pierced through the boy's spoiled exterior.
Tate decided to run.
He spun around, his small sneakers kicking up gravel. He didn't look where he was going. He just put his head down and sprinted blindly toward the maiń house, desperate to escape the consequences of his actions.
No.2
Elisa was standing right in the middle of the path,stil cradling her bruised wrist, her body turned slightly sideways.
Tate slammed into her like a small bowling ball.
His hard shoulder drove directly into her stomach.The sudden, violent impact knocked the breath out of her lungs. Her feet slipped on the loose gravel.
She lost her balance completely. Her arms flailed,finding nothing but empty air.
She fell backward.
Her back hit the edge of the raised stone border that lined the rose beds. The sound of the impact was a sickening, hollow thud that seemed to vibrate through the ground.②
A sharp, jarring shock radiated from her hip where
No.3
she hit the stone, sending a wave of nausea through her. For a terrifying second, the ghost of her Aspen injury flared-but Elisa gritted her teeth, forcing the phantom pain back. She was no longer that fragile woman; she refused to let a child's stumble break her again.
The pain was so absolute it erased her vision. The world went black. Her mouth opened in a silent scream, but her lungs refused to draw in air. Cold sweat instantly soaked the back of her shirt, sticking the fabric to her skin.
"Elisa!" Alastair's voice tore through the garden.
He sprinted forward, dropping to his knees beside her on the sharp gravel. He hovered his hands over her, terrified to touch her and make the injury worse.
Dr. Blevins handed Kayden to a nearby nanny and rushed over, his medical instincts taking over. He knelt on her other side, his face pale with worry.
August heard the heavy thud. He heard Alastair's panicked shout.
He turned his head. He saw Elisa lying flat on the stones, her face the color of chalk, her body
No.4
completely rigid.
His stomach dropped. A sudden, sharp spike of genuine fear pierced through his anger. His foot moved, taking an involuntary step toward her.
At that exact moment, Allena let out a dramatic,gasping shriek.
"Tate!" she screamed.
She let go of August's jacket and threw herself onto the gravel next to her brother, who had fallen on his bottom after the collision. Allena gathered the uninjured boy into her arms, rocking him back and forth,crying hysterically.
"My baby brother! Are you hurt? Did she hurt you?"Allena wailed, burying her face in the boy's neck.
August's foot froze. He looked at Elisa, then at the DNA report clutched in Alastair's hand nearby. The truth she'd just unleashed in the garden was a sun he couldn't look at directly. Allena's sob provided the perfect exit-a chance to flee the confrontation he was losing. He didn't choose Allena because he believed her; he chose her because she was the only lie he had left to hide behind.
No.5
August turned his back, not just on his wife, but on the terrifying, uncontrollable instinct that had just made him step toward her in genuine fear.
He walked over to Allena. He bent down, wrapping his 'strong arms around her waist, and lifted her effortlessly off the ground. He held her against his chest, murmuring soothing words into her hair.
He did not look back at the stone path. He did not look at the woman lying there, unable to breathe through the pain.
"Pack up the equipment," August barked at the stunned camera crew standing near the library doors. "We are leaving."
He carried Allena away, his long strides eating up the distance to the driveway.
Elisa forced her eyes open. Through a haze of tears and blinding pain, she watched his broad back disappear around the corner of the house.
The physical agony in her spine was nothing compared to the cold, crushing weight settling in her chest. Any lingering fantasy she had about him possessing a shred of humanity was ground into the
No.6
dirt beneath his expensive shoes.③
The distant roar of a car engine starting up drifted over the lawns. The sound faded away, leaving the garden in a heavy, ringing silence.
"Mama?"
A tiny, terrified voice broke the quiet. Kayden wiggled out of the nanny's grasp and ran over. She dropped to her knees, her small hands gently touching Elisa's arm. Her large eyes were swimming with tears.
The warmth of her daughter's touch cut through the fog of pain.
Elisa gritted her teeth. She tasted blood where she had bitten her own lip. She forced her lungs to expand, drawing in a ragged, agonizing breath.
She reached out with a trembling hand and stroked Kayden's soft hair.
No.7
"I'm okay, baby," Elisa whispered, her voice barely a rasp.
She looked up at Alastair. Her eyes were no longer empty. They were filled with a dark, freezing resolve.
"Help me up," she commanded.
Alastair slid his arms under her shoulders. With agonizing slowness, he pulled her to her feet. Every millimeter of movement sent shockwaves of fire down her legs, but she did not cry out.
She stood there, swaying slightly, leaning heavily on
Alastair's arm. She looked at the empty space where August and Allena had been standing.
She was going to make them bleed. But first, she looked at the folder Alastair held-the truth about the child's bloodline. August could run to the ends of the earth with Allena, but he couldn't run from the DNA that was about to dismantle his entire world. "The results," she rasped, "don't let them leave this garden."②