Bound By A Broken Night novel Chapter 232

The moment they arrived, everything moved at once. Medical staff were already waiting.

The doors were pulled open before the vehicle had even fully stopped, and within seconds, nurses and attendants carefully lifted Celia onto a stretcher. Voices overlapped–clear, urgent, efficient—as they wheeled her inside without delay.

Eliseo, Dino, and Carmel stood/frozen for a moment, stunned. They could only watch.

This kind of urgency… this kind of attention–it was something they had never experienced before. Not in a small clinic, not in a rural infirmary… and certainly not in a place like this.

The hospital itself loomed above them–massive, pristine, intimidating. Every glass panel, every polished surface, every hurried step of the staff reminded them of just how far removed this world was from their own.

“We… we can’t afford this place…”

Carmel’s voice broke through the moment, snapping herself out of the daze. Panic set in as she rushed toward Cassie and Ashton, who were speaking with one of the doctors.

Cassie turned to her, offering a calm, reassuring smile.

“What matters right now is saving your mother,” she said gently.

Carmel hesitated, her grip tightening around the small cloth bundle she still carried.

Cassie held her gaze, steady but careful. If only it were that simple.

If only she could just tell them not to worry–that she would take care of everything, that they didn’t have to bear this burden alone. That she could, because they were her family.

But it wasn’t that easy.

She couldn’t just step into their lives and take control, couldn’t impose herself and rewrite the way they had learned to survive. Not when she barely knew them beyond the fragments of information Ashton had gathered.

She didn’t know their struggles in full.

Didn’t know the choices they had made, the sacrifices they had endured, the pride they had preserved despite everything.

And she wouldn’t take that away from them. So she held herself back. One step at a time.

Careful. Patient. Because the last thing she wanted… was to scare them away.

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“The patient will need to undergo several tests and laboratory work,” the doctor explained, her tone professional but firm as

she faced Carmel.

“She’s been unconscious for some time, and that’s not a good sign. We need to assess her condition thoroughly… surgery may be necessary.”

Carmel’s grip tightened around the cloth bundle in her hands.

“Will this… be enough for the deposit?” she asked quickly, stepping forward.

“I’ll go back home and get more once Mama is out of danger.”

She held it out with both hands, as if offering something far more than money.

The doctor glanced briefly at Ashton. He gave a subtle nod.

“This will be enough for now,” the doctor said with a reassuring smile as she accepted the bundle.

Chapter 47-

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“We’ll proceed immediately.”

Without wasting another second, she turned and disappeared down the hallway, already calling for instructions as she went.

Cassie exhaled softly before turning back to Carmel.

“Bring your father and brother,” she said gently.

“There’s a waiting area inside where you can rest while they attend to your mother.”

Carmel hesitated, glancing down at herself–her worn clothes, her hands still stained with soil.

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