PART 2 (continued)

The first thing I remember after seeing his face was the sound of my own heartbeat.

Slow. Uneven. Distant—like it belonged to someone else.

The man on the rope knelt beside me as if the storm, the wind, and the freezing mountain around us had stopped existing entirely. His blue eyes locked onto mine with an intensity that made it feel like I was being pulled back from somewhere I wasn’t supposed to return from.

“Emma,” he said again, this time more gently.

My lips were too numb to respond.

He suddenly turned toward the hovering helicopter and spoke sharply into his radio. I caught broken pieces of his transmission—pregnant, hypothermia, possible fractures, immediate evacuation. His voice was steady and professional, but his hands told a different story.

PART 3 — The Truth Beneath the Silence

Richard stayed frozen in the doorway for several seconds, framed by the dim hallway light behind him. His face had gone pale, and the steady beeping of the hospital monitor beside my bed suddenly felt too loud—like the only thing in the room still telling the truth.

Who removed the last page?”

Richard looked at the paper, then at me. His lips parted slightly—but no words came.

That silence was enough.

Something inside me folded inward. Not anger. Anger would have been easier. What I felt first was something heavier—disappointment—settling into my chest like cold water.

“You promised me,” I said quietly. “No more secrets.”

He stepped closer. “Emma—”

“No.” My voice shook, but I held it steady. “Don’t say my name like it can fix what you did. Ashley called me. She said the letter wasn’t complete. She told me to ask you about the baby at Vale Harbor.”

Richard closed his eyes.

Everything in the room seemed to shift with that name.

When he finally opened them again, his posture had changed—less controlled, more burdened, as if something long carried had finally started to break him.

I lowered the letter. “What baby?”

He sat down slowly at the edge of my bed, hands tightly clasped.

“Your mother wasn’t the only pregnant woman at Vale Harbor,” he said.

My entire body went still.

“My hand instinctively moved toward my stomach, as if remembering the shape of Lucas even now, though he was already born.