Chapter 17

Running into Damien barely registered. Her head was full of her mother.

She got to the room. Everett and a couple of other doctors were at the bedside, talking quietly over her chart.

He saw her and waved her in. The others nodded and stepped out. Just the three of them — Seraphina, Everett, her mother.

"What's happening? Tell me."

He handed her the file.

"We just went over it. Her survival drive is remarkably strong. Her numbers are good. Waking up is on the table."

Her eyes flooded.

This was the sentence she had been waiting to hear.

Every team had told her it was hopeless. This one was saying it wasn't. She had been waiting for almost two years. If there was a chance, she would wait three, five, ten.

Everett reached up and wiped a tear away.

"This is good news. Why are you crying?"

"Don't. I promise you. I will give your mother back to you. Okay?"

She nodded, nodded, nodded.

"Okay."

He was moving to pull her into him when the door swung open.

"Sera —"

"Let me explain, please, just once —"

"I love you, I can't do this without you — give me a chance to make it up to you —"

He had followed her up.

Into her mother's hospital room.

Something went cold in her voice.

"Shut up." She hit the call button for the nurse. "Get out."

He opened his mouth again. She picked up the nearest thing and threw it.

His voice was contaminating her mother's air.

"Shut up. Damien, look at her. Look at what she is. How dare you stand here asking me to forgive you. How dare you use the word love in this room."

"You apologize and the damage goes away? You torture Vivienne and my mother wakes up? No. No. Because of you. Because of Vivienne. She's in that bed. My brother's limbs had to be rebuilt. I will carry everything you did for the rest of my life. We are divorced. I cannot think of a single thing we have to talk about. The best thing you could do for me is get out of my sight and stay there."

There was real feeling in her voice. Not for him. For her mother.

She could be cold to Damien forever. But thinking about who had made her mother like this — she could cheerfully kill the two of them with her hands.

His face twisted with pain. Everything he wanted to say collapsed into one line.

"I'm sorry."

"I —"

The nurse stepped in and gestured for him to leave.

Seraphina turned her back. She wasn't going to listen to his voice any longer.

He had to retreat.