Chapter 623:

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Garrett was finally allowed into the room. He sat by Amelia’s bed and took her hand in his, stroking the back of it gently with his thumb, tracing the edges of a fresh bruise where a needle had been removed. His eyes filled with a bottomless well of regret.

He stayed like that, watching her, until late into the night. The accumulated exhaustion of the past days, the immense mental and emotional strain, finally claimed him. He slumped forward, his head resting on the edge of the bed, and fell into a deep, heavy sleep.

A sudden chill woke him. He shot upright. The soft warmth in his hand was gone.

The bed was empty. Amelia was gone.

A panic colder and sharper than anything he had felt at the Langley estate seized him. He burst out of the room and grabbed the arm of a passing nurse, his voice trembling with a terror that was almost primal.

“Where is she? Where is my wife?”

The nurse, startled, stammered, “She… she just woke up. We tried to check on her, but she… she ran out on her own…”

Garrett’s mind raced. Woke up? Ran? Where?

One thought sliced through the chaos: the baby.

𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗴𝗮𝗹𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘀.𝗰𝗼𝗺

He spun around and sprinted toward the other end of the hall, toward the NICU.

He pushed open the heavy doors, and the smell of disinfectant hit him like a wall. In a room filled with rows of incubators glowing with soft blue light, he saw her instantly.

Amelia.

She wore an oversized hospital gown, her feet bare against the cold floor, her frame so thin she looked as though she might break. She stood perfectly still in front of one of the incubators, her palm pressed flat against the cold glass, tears streaming silently down her face.

Garrett slowed, his footsteps silent. He could hear her soft, heartbroken sobs.

He reached out, wanting to wrap his arms around her from behind, but his hand stopped in midair.

He saw that all her attention, all her love and all her pain, was focused on the tiny sleeping infant inside that glass box.

He whispered her name. “Amelia.”

Her body went rigid. She turned her head slowly. When she saw him, the tears came faster, her eyes filled with the look of someone in absolute despair who has just glimpsed a flicker of light.

Garrett took a step forward, his arms open.

But Amelia took half a step back. She shook her head, her gaze never leaving her daughter in the incubator.

Her voice was weak, fragile, and laced with an unbreakable resolve. “I’m not leaving her. I’m not going anywhere.”

Garrett’s heart sank. He understood. She was back, but her heart was locked here, beside this glass box.

He didn’t force her. He simply walked to her side and covered the hand she had pressed to the glass with his own, letting his warmth seep into her icy fingers.

“Okay,” he said, his voice low and soft. “We won’t go. I’ll stay with you.”

They stood side by side, silently watching the miracle in the incubator. This was their first reunion, and they were already broken.

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