15 Chapter 15 ONE BIG ROLLERCOASTER
“Oh, Sera-” Celeste lunged for my hand with performative sympathy. I yanked back
before she could touch me.
I’d been wrong.
“Are you kidding me?” The words tore out of me raw.
My jaw went slack.
Then her eyes met mine across the room, and she froze, too.
I froze for a second, stunned by the look of pure joy on her face as she threw her head back against the pillows, giggling uncontrollably at whatever Lucian fucking Reed said.
The heart monitor spiked as I struggled upright. “You think I—” A white-hot bolt of pain
silenced me.
་་
But my attention was on Ethan. “You promised you wouldn’t leave her side,” I said. “Why
are you outside and not with her?”
The nurse came bursting in, her eyes wide when she beheld the commotion.
“Please.” She leaned in, her designer perfume choking me. “You’ve always been pathetic
when it comes to Kieran. But this?” She gestured to my bandages. “This is desperate.”
The room was silent again, and I heard the warm voice say, “It’s okay, I’m a friend.”
Ethan glanced at Celeste, and annoyance flashed in his eyes. “She kicked us out,” he said
to me.
I actually laughed a hoarse, painful sound. “Are you fucking serious?”
I turned my head, my vision clearing slightly, and I smiled softly. “It’s okay,” I said weakly. “He can stay.”
He raised a brow. “We’re at a hospital, Celeste. They have exactly one kind of coffee— instant.”
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“You conniving, manipulative bitch.”
The first thing that hit my ears was laughter-sweet and musical.
The sarcasm burned on my tongue-Oh, are you? Sorry enough to finally acknowledge I exist?—but the raw guilt in his eyes choked it back. “Thanks,” I muttered instead.
“Get out,” she said icily.
I took the stairs three at a time, my pulse roaring-only to freeze at the sight outside her
door.
I frowned. “Who?”
“I meant it when I said I would take back everything that’s mine,” she said sharply. “But maybe, as revenge, I’ll take something that’s yours, too.”
Lucian shot the nurse a charming smile. “See? The lady vouches for me.”
For the first time, I saw her clearly-not my baby sister, but a viper who’d been poisoning
my life for years.
Ethan sat slumped, hands clenched like he was praying. Celeste looked like she’d been dipped in coffee, her silk blouse ruined, face mottled red.
That look in her eyes-like I was nothing. Like our decade together had evaporated.
“Stop!” Sera was saying amidst fits of giggles. “You’re going to make me tear a stitch!”
And, like someone drawing blinds to keep the sun away, her entire expression shuttered. Her smile faded, her eyes hardened, and a blast of frigid air filled the room.
I narrowed my eyes. “What are you talking about?”
She slow-clapped, each mocking clap stinging worse than the gunshot wound. “That’s on
another level, Sera.”
I’d meant to shower, sleep for thirty minutes-just enough to take the edge off-then get back to Sera. Instead, I slept for over two hours.
The door clicked open. Ethan walked in, a bottle of water in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, steam rising over the rim.
SERAPHINA’S POV
“Sera,” Lucian said softly, taking her hand in his, “calm down, don’t overwork yourself.”
As soon as the door closed behind Ethan, I closed my eyes. Things were definitely awkward between Celeste and me, and I knew she probably felt guilty about our last
conversation and wouldn’t want to-
“Why?”
My eyes zeroed in on Lucian’s hand in Sera’s, and my vision tinged green with jealousy as
she turned to him and offered him a soft smile.
The nurse finally left, and Lucian turned the smile on me. “My, my, Sera, your life is one big
rollercoaster, isn’t it?”
Ethan’s mouth hung open, the empty water bottle slipping from his grip. “Jesus Christ,
Sera-”
Her manicured finger tapped my IV pole. “So maybe I’ll take Daniel as my own. Raise him
properly. As my son.”
Her laugh was hollow. “Funny. I don’t recall asking for your vigil.”
Celeste’s smirk widened. “How would you like that, Sera? Danny calling me mommy?”
The truth hit like a silver bullet:
And the one left behind hated me.
He nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
“I’m the one who’s been by your side for the past two days while you teetered between life and death. He”-I glared at Lucian in disgust-“shows up with a gift basket and deserves your affection?”
“Lucian Reed.”
Ethan’s throat worked as he studied everything in the room-the IV snaking into my arm, the EKG’s steady blips, the starch-white pillows-anything but my face. “How are you feeling?”
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15 Chapter 15 ONE BIG ROLLERCOASTER
Celeste sniffled. “Kie-”
Shortly after that, a nurse came in to administer my medication and painkillers. Then she inclined the hospital bed, so I was sitting up slightly. When she was done, she reassured me that I was doing as well as could be expected, and I took a deep breath of relief-then regretted it, thanks to the stabbing pain in my chest.
I hastily threw on clothes and shoes and was out of the house in two minutes.
I was about to remind him that the nurse had just said I couldn’t eat solid foods just yet
when Celeste beat me to it. “Could I get a latte, please, Ethan?”
They both looked up at me.
“GET THEM OUT!” I screamed, wheezing. “I DON’T WANT TO SEE THEIR FACES!”
“I said out.” Her voice could have flash-frozen hell. The heart monitor spiked as her breath
turned ragged. “Take your pack of hypocrites with you.”
Later, I wouldn’t remember deciding to move. Only the scalding arc of dark liquid,
Celeste’s scream like shattered glass, and the burn of satisfaction deeper than any
wound.
“Sera-”
Lucian was seated on the seat I had occupied over the last two days, a gift basket at his
feet. An illogical, irrational part of me told me he was trying to replace me.
collapsed against the pillows, desperately gasping for air. The cannula had slipped onto
the bed, and my hand moved wildly, trying to reach for it.
“I’ll surely leave.” She flicked my IV line. “But make no mistake…”
“Are you deaf?” she snapped, and my eyes widened as her chest started to rise and fall rapidly. “I said—”
Celeste’s lips curled into a viper’s smile. “Kieran only tolerates you because you whelped
his heir.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. That.”
“What does it matter?” Ethan said. “Besides”-he nodded towards the door-“he’s here.”
My body moved before my mind could catch up, and I drew open the door to Sera’s room.
Again, Ethan looked at Celeste, and she simply rolled her eyes, glaring down at her
stained shirt.
I could still hear Celeste sobbing and hurling insults at me, the nurse politely, then firmly telling my siblings to leave, and then-
I didn’t know if my vision was blurring because of my tears or the gradual asphyxiation. But then I felt someone gently fit the cannula back into my nostrils, and I took a grateful
breath.
Just Ethan and Celeste hovering like vultures over a kill.
“OUT!” The word tore from my raw throat. My oxygen tube slithered away as I heaved,
but I kept my glare locked on Celeste. “BEFORE I POUR THE NEXT ONE ON YOUR FACE!”
Regardless of her words, I stepped further into the room, and her face tightened with
anger.
Two fucking hours.
“She just chased away her siblings, now, I don’t think…”
Of course. The logic was sound-he’d earned the break after playing dutiful watch.
“I thought I knew every seductive tactic in the book,” Celeste sneered at me. “But getting yourself shot to get Kieran’s attention?”
The heart monitor shrieked alongside my pulse.
I smiled. “I’m good, thanks.”
Celeste went rigid. Ethan answered too quickly. “We made him go home. Get some rest.”
What the hell had happened in the three hours I was gone? Had she just been too weak earlier to treat me this way, or had something else occurred?
“Do you need anything?” Ethan asked when she was gone. “Food? Water?”
“You psychotic bitch!” Celeste wailed, swiping at her face and pulling her drenched top away from her. “You hateful piece of shit!”
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She turned back to me as I entered the room.
The woman I married was gone.
Ethan turned to me. “What about you?”
“Get out.” My voice dropped to a growl.
The drive to the hospital was a blur of growling engines and worse scenarios. Had she woken in pain? Had she asked for me?
“Shhh. It’s okay.”
KIERAN’S POV
I took a step into the room.
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “We’re sorry this happened to you.”
When I clawed my way back to consciousness, the space beside my bed was empty. No brooding alpha. No Kieran.
What the fuck? My tongue felt oddly weightless, but the bitterness in my chest was lead-heavy.
“What the hell happened?” My voice came out gravel-rough.
I woke with a snarl, my wolf already clawing at my ribs before my eyes found the clock.
Then, like a masochist, I asked, “Where’s Kieran?”
She’d asked me to leave the day before, too, but not like this-this was ice-the kind that froze rivers from the bottom up.
“Excuse me?” The words scraped raw against my throat.
Celeste smirked. “Weak. Pathetic. Exactly what he’ll remember when this little stunt fades.”
My eyes flew open to see my sister looming over my hospital bed, her perfect face twisted with venom.
“Like I’ve been fucking shot,” I rasped.
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