Chapter 14
I spent my days curled up on the window seat, watching the snow fall. Nathan would try to engage, but I could barely muster the energy to respond. The silence felt safer than whatever this twisted reality had become.
“What would make you happy?” he asked one evening, his voice dripping with false concern.
I glanced up from my book. “I miss Lucy. Could I see her?”
He smiled that practiced smile. “You’re still recovering. Why not have her visit instead?”
My heart skipped – a possibility I hadn’t dared hope for. “Really?”
He brushed my hair back, a gesture that once brought comfort but now made my skin crawl. “Anything for you,
sweetheart.”
True to his word, he brought Lucy up the mountain the next day.
She rushed to hug me, her warmth so familiar it hurt. “Emma! God, so this is where you’ve been hiding – some fancy
mountain retreat!”
I held her tight, joy and terror warring in my chest.
At dinner, while I was trying to slip her my carefully folded note, Nathan’s casual question stopped me cold: “How’s your father’s investment working out?”
Lucy beamed, oblivious to the undercurrent. “Dad’s so excited, he convinced the whole family to go all in! We’ve even leveraged everything for more shares!”
“Better not pull out on us!” She laughed, the sound echoing off the high ceilings. “Or we’re completely ruined!”
Nathan’s smile never wavered. “Of course not. Emma’s friends are family.”
The meaning was crystal clear.
He turned to me, all warmth and concern. “Isn’t it nice having friends visit, darling?”
I nodded mechanically.
Two days later, he brought Sarah.
She teared up seeing me. “Last time I saw you, you were hooked up to machines. Thank God you’re okay.”
I knew her story all too well – the gambling father, brother in prison, autistic son. Her salary kept them afloat.
I couldn’t risk it. Not for any of them.
We sat in the courtyard after the snow, the fresh powder making everything look deceptively peaceful. Our laughter carried across the grounds – probably the only genuine sound this place had heard in weeks.
06:49
Seven Years of Love, Seven Minutes fru
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Chapter 14
“Remember college?” I mused. “All our big plans to travel the world? Life had other ideas.”
Sarah chuckled, waving to Nathan who watched from his second–floor perch. “Right? If you’d made that flight to Paris, maybe one of us would’ve lived the dream!”
I went very still.
“Sarah?”
“Hmm?”
“How did you know… about Paris?”
The silence that followed was deafening.
06.19
