Dusk Snow Hides All Return (Rowan and Adrienne) novel Chapter 23

Chapter 23.

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Rowan pushed her off. Not gently

Adrienne stumbled, barely caught her balance. The wound in her back tore from the movement, and she sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth. More blood came pouring out.

Rowan pulled out his phone, dialed 911. His voice was terrifyingly calm. Clean, clear address. Clean, clear situation.

Then he walked over to the attacker now pinned on the ground. Looked at him once. No expression. Walked back to Adrienne.

Adrienne slumped against the car door, slowly sliding down to the pavement. Blood loss was blurring her vision, but she forced her eyes open, looking at him.

“Rowan…” She reached out, trying to catch the edge of his coat. Her hand dropped, limp, before she could.

Rowan stood over her, watching the blood spread out from under her, staining the pavement red. His lips moved. In the end, he said nothing.

The ambulance siren cut through the air, getting closer.

When the paramedics loaded Adrienne onto the stretcher, her eyes were still locked on Rowan’s direction. She didn’t look away until the dark swallowed her up.

Outside the Operating Room, the red light stayed on.

Rowan sat quietly on the bench in the hallway. Adrienne’s blood was still on his clothes, dried now into dark red stains. Nothing on his face. His eyes were empty, fixed on the white wall across from him.

Quick footsteps came rushing down the hall.

Mr. Ashford Sr. and Mrs. Ashford came running in, both of them pale and panicked, clothes thrown together–clearly they’d dropped everything the second they got the call. They spotted/Rowan on the bench immediately.

“Rowan!” Mrs. Ashford lunged toward him, tears spilling over instantly. “My baby! Are you okay? Mom was so scared!”

She reached out to pull him into a hug. Rowan shifted sideways and dodged her.

Mrs. Ashford’s arms froze in the air. The look on her face solidified.

Rowan lifted his

surgery.”

eyes,

scanned them both calmly. His voice had no rise and fall in it. “I’m fine. Adrienne’s the one hurt. She’s in

Mr. Ashford Sr. looked at his son, this cold, distant stranger, and tears ran down his aged face. He stepped forward. His voice shook. “Rowan… Dad knows we wronged you. Dad was wrong. I should never have treated you like that… Come home with Dad. Okay? We’ll make it up to you, we swear, we’ll be twice as good to you from now on…”

Rowan’s mouth pulled into a faint curve. No warmth in it at all.

“Mr. Ashford. Mrs. Ashford. If I remember correctly–my parents died the day I signed the Voluntary Declaration of Severance of Parent–Child Relationship.”

Mr. Ashford Sr. and Mrs. Ashford looked like they’d been hit by lightning. The color drained out of their faces.

Mrs. Ashford dropped to her knees with a heavy thud, arms wrapping around Rowan’s legs, crying like her insides were being ripped out. “Rowan! Mom was wrong! Mom really knows she was wrong! Mom was stupid, Mom was blinded by foolishness! Forgive Mom, come home with Mom! I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you! Please, just look at Mom!”

Rowan looked down at the woman on her knees at his feet, face streaked with tears and snot.

This woman who used to be the picture of elegance, who used to act like even glancing at him was too much effort was now a wreck. A woman gone to pieces.

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There was nothing in his chest. No ripple. Just a cold, numb stillness.

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“Mrs. Ashford.” He started prying her fingers off his pant leg, one at a time, slow and deliberate. “Please. Have some dignity.”

Seeing it, Mr. Ashford Sr. dropped to his knees too, heavy thud, and started to bow his forehead to the floor in front of Rowan. “Rowan! Dad’s bowing down to you! Dad’s not even human! Dad failed you! Forgive your mom and dad! Dad is begging you!”

Rowan shot to his feet right before his forehead hit the ground, stepping clear of him.

He looked down at the two people on their knees in front of him, aged ten years in an instant. His eyes stayed calm. There was even a faint edge of mockery in them.

“What are you doing?” His voice came out soft, but every word landed crystal clear in everyone’s ears. “First you used being family to guilt me into compliance. Now you want to switch over and use your own guilt to do the same thing?”

Mr. Ashford Sr. and Mrs. Ashford’s heads snapped up. They stared at him, stunned.

owed the. That you were going to make it up to me.” “Five years ago, you brought me back to the Ashford Family. You said you Rowan spoke slowly, like he was narrating someone else’s story. “These past five years what exactly did you make up to me?”

“Was it making me hand over the room I’d barely lived in for a month, to your adopted son Desmond?”

“Was it leaving me stood up at a hotel

“Was it letting Adrienne abort

on my o

birthday, by my own fiancée, alone until the middle of the night?”

my child, because your adopted son would be upset otherwise?”

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