Chapter 427 Tongues Tied
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By the time the sentence finished ricocheting around the room, Quinn wanted nothing more than for the floor to crack open and swallow her whole.
If ever there were proof that exining only made things worse, that was it.
“In any case, I can walk on my own,” she blurted out, face still red as a tomato.
Julius‘ obsidian eyes remained fixed on her, steady and unblinking, and she thought she could see the earlier gloom receding by degrees, like night retreating from the edge of a slow dawn.
“All right,” he murmured atst, “I understand.”
Huh? What <i>exactly </i><i>does </i><i>he </i><i>understand</i><i>? </i><i>That </i>I <i>can </i>walk <i>on </i><i>my </i>own? <i>Or </i><i>that </i><i>I </i><i>do</i>, <i>in </i><i>fact</i><i>, </i>want to sleep with him?
Either way, with the sadness gone, his eyes were breathtaking.
Atst, they reached the hospital, its sterile ss fa?ade gleaming under the midday sun while ambnces idled like restless beasts along the curb.
Julius guided her to the floor where Lena’s name glowed faintly on a row of doortes, then brushed a reassuring hand across Quinn’s shoulder. “I have some things to handle in the hospital. I’lle back to you in a little while.”
Quinn answered with a quick nod.
Only after the elevator doors slid shut behind Julius did she shift her weight onto the crutches and inch down the corridor toward Lena’s ward, the rubber tips tapping out a determined, uneven rhythm.
gone Lena sat propped against two pillows, hospital gown hanging loose over shoulders unnaturally narrow. Her scalp was bare and gleaming, the hair sacrificed to treatment; herplexion carried the chalky pallor of someone who had spent too long wrestling monsters in the dark.
Quinn paused at the doorway, bncing on her crutches. “Hi, I am—”
”
Lena’s eyes sparked with sudden energy. “You’re Quinn Bridger, aren’t you?”
Quinn’s eyebrows lifted. A flicker of surprise fractured her usual steadyposure. “You know
me?”
16:25 <b>Sat</b>, Sep 27
Chapter 427 Tongues Tied
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Lena nodded, her cheeks warming with mild embarrassment. “Leander–oh, no, that’s not it. Rowan is the one who showed me your photograph. He has also spoken of you often.”
Quinn inclined her head, gratitude softening the edge of her tone. “Thank you for saving my brother back then.”
Lena broke into a gentle smile. “It would be truer to say your brother saved me. My family had just died, and I waspletely alone. Finding Rowan kept the loneliness from swallowing me whole.”
In those bleak days, the world had felt stripped to a single thread.
She and Rowan clung to that thread–two souls pressed back–to–back against the dark, convinced they had no one but each other.
A fragileugh slipped from Lena’s lips, barely louder than the heartbeat monitor. “If it weren’t for Rowan, I probably wouldn’t still be here. Even this treatment–without him, I’d never have stood <i>a </i>chance.”
She knew that had she remained in Doria, she would probably have waited for death, illness gnawing day after day.
Quinn’s brows knitted. “Your illness…”
“Leukemia. But Rowan has already found a perfect match, and the donor is willing to donate the stem cells as soon as possible,” Lena exined. For a moment, hope brightened her eyes, eclipsing the fatigue that lived there.
Quinn hesitated, words catching in her throat. “Lena, about the donor…”
Her question broke off as the door swung open with a soft hiss of hydraulics. Rowan stepped inside, the morning light at his back, shoulders squared with easy confidence.
The man closed the distance in three long strides. “Quinn! When did you get here? I thought your flight wasn’tnding in Celosia untilter today.”
“My original flight had issues, so I caught an earlier one,” Quinn exined. “I wanted to see Lena first before meeting up with you.”
Rowan’s gaze dropped to the cast hugging her leg. “Why the hurry? You could’ve waited until your leg healed before hopping on a ne.”
“I need to talk with youter, Rowan. It’s something important,” she said. <fn645c> ?? ??? ???? ?? ???? ???? ???????s, ????s? ??s?? find{n}ovel</fn645c>
Rowan’s smile warmed. “We’ll step outside in a bit. Anyway, how’s your recoverying
Chapter 427 Tongues Tied
along?”
“Not bad. A few more days and the castes off.”
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“Good,” Rowan murmured before walking to Lena’s bedside table and opening the boxed meal he had brought. Lowering it within her reach, he spoke with tender insistence. “These are your favorites. Give them a try.”
Lena nodded, taking dainty bites of the breakfast Rowan had prepared, savoring the simplefort of warm food and warmerpany.
Lena had managed only a few mouthfuls when the color drained from her cheeks. Without hesitation, she tugged a crumpled stic bag from her purse, bent forward, and retched again. and again.
Rowan was beside her in an instant, one arm bracing her trembling shoulders, worry carved into every line of his face.
When the spasms finally eased, he handed her tissues, dabbed the corners of her lips himself, then held a cup of water so she could rinse. Only after tying off the bag and dropping it into the waste bin did he let his hands fall, though the tension never left his jaw.
Pale and perspiring, Lena managed a shaky smile for Quinn. “I’m so sorry you had to see that. The treatment makes nausea a constantpanion.”
Quinn gave a small, understanding nod. “I understand.”
Over the past few weeks, Quinn had devoured every article she could find on leukemia–the treatment protocols, the side effects, and the bleak statistics. She knew, therefore, that vomiting after chemotherapy was almost routine, yet watching Lena suffer still felt like a fist to the chest.
Lena forced down several more bites, determined to keep something in her stomach.
Rowan never left her side. The tenderness in his eyes–anxious, protective, unbelievably soft- was a version of him Quinn had never encountered.
It was the look a man saved for the woman he loved.
In that instant, Quinn understood: Rowan loved Lena.
Inside a small office in the hospital, Gavin lounged against his desk, eyes narrowed at Julius. “What brings you here so early in the morning?” he drawled. “I thought you’d be with Quinn.”
Celosia National Hematology Centre was the country’s best hospital in treating blood cancer,
Chapter 427 Tongues Tied
so the Fane family had arranged for Lena to receive treatment there.
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As for Julius, since arriving in Celosia, he had undergone battery after battery of tests, each. designed to see whether his bone marrow could save her.