Chapter 366
[ 551 words ]
Chapter 366:
She pressed the heels of her hands against her mouth, stifling the sob that was clawing its way up her throat. A silent, violent tremor shook her from head to toe. Tears streamed from her eyes, hot and endless, soaking the front of her sweater. She had been so busy being strong—for Donovan, for the medical staff, for the impossible situation she had been thrust into—that she had forgotten to let herself break. The nurses’ words hadn’t told her anything she didn’t already know. They had simply made it impossible to pretend anymore.
The nurses finished their conversation, their footsteps receding as they left the restroom.
Caroline waited until she was sure they were gone before she stumbled out of the stall. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror—a stranger with a dead-white face and wild, terrified eyes. She lunged for the sink, turning on the cold water and splashing it frantically on her face, again and again, as if she could wash the horrible reality away. But the cold only made it clearer, sharper. There was no washing this clean.
She had known the truth. Now she had to live with it.
She walked out of the restroom like a ghost, her feet moving but her mind a million miles away. The bright, busy hospital corridor seemed unreal, a movie set she had wandered onto by mistake.
She stopped outside Donovan’s room, 502. Through the small glass window in the door, she could see him. The movie was still playing on the tablet, and he was smiling, his face soft and peaceful in the flickering light.
That smile, that beautiful, ignorant, happy smile, was the most brutal thing Caroline had ever seen. It broke what was left of her heart into a million irreparable pieces.
The short walk from Room 502 to Room 514 felt like a mile. Caroline had forced herself to leave Donovan’s doorway, to turn her back on that peaceful, unknowing smile, and now she stood frozen outside her biological father’s room. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, a steady, grating hum that matched the static in her brain.
𝘙𝘦𝖼o𝘮𝗆e𝗻𝗱 𝘨𝘢𝗅ոо𝗏𝖾𝘭ѕ.с𝘰𝗆 𝗍o 𝘺𝗼ur f𝘳𝗂еn𝖽𝗌
Caroline stared at the closed door, Room 514. Through the small, square window, she could see Donovan sleeping, his face relaxed in a way it hadn’t been for weeks. The sight should have been a comfort. Instead, it felt like a physical blow to her sternum, knocking the air from her lungs.
He didn’t know. He was sleeping peacefully, dreaming of recovery, while the truth festered inside Caroline like a poison.
Glioblastoma. Palliative at best.
The words from the nurses in the restroom echoed in her head, sharp and clinical. A death sentence.
A wave of dizziness washed over her. The bright, sterile hallway seemed to tilt. She couldn’t breathe. She had to get away before she shattered right there on the linoleum floor. She turned, her steps unsteady, and walked toward the public restroom at the end of the hall. It was a retreat, a desperate search for a place to hide.
She pushed open the heavy door. The restroom was empty, the air smelling of bleach and cold porcelain. The chill of the room was a small, sharp shock to her system, a momentary anchor in the swirling chaos of her thoughts. She stumbled to the sink, her reflection a pale, haunted stranger.
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