He Buried Me But I Painted My Own Resurrection novel Chapter 8

"You're awake?"

He closed the folder, set it aside, and handed her a glass of warm water.

Sienna took it and took a sip; her throat was terribly parched. She glanced out the window, noting the sky had already gone dark.

"Thank you for saving me," Sienna murmured weakly.

Lucas took the glass back and set it down without a word, plunging the room into a deathly silence.

After a long while, he finally spoke. "Sienna, I read your medical report."

Sienna's fingers curled slightly.

Lucas's voice was flat, but his words came much slower than usual. "Abnormal liver function, kidney indicators severely out of range, myocardial ischemia, and..."

He paused.

"Your organs are failing."

Silence hung in the room for a few seconds.

Sienna leaned back against her pillows, staring at the ceiling.

She had no way to explain it to him, so she simply surrendered to the truth and said,

"I know."

Lucas was taken aback by her calmness, but he didn't press the issue.

He didn't ask why she was coughing up blood on a highway, why she was so shockingly thin, or where her injuries came from.

He just sat there in silence for a very long time.

"Tell me what you need."

Sienna turned her head to look at him.

After all these years, no one had ever asked her that question. Grant had never asked her what she needed; he only told her what she was supposed to do.

"I want to paint."

Lucas paused for a moment before nodding. "Okay."

No unnecessary questions. Just a single "okay."

That word was so light, like a feather landing precisely on the softest part of her heart.

It felt as though something had stung her chest, leaving a sour, swelling ache that pulled at her dry eyes and made them burn.

Meanwhile, at the Gauthier estate.

Lyla was relaxing with a sheet mask on when her phone buzzed on the sofa.

Grant frowned. "She still isn't back?"

"Exactly!" Susan raised her voice even higher. "With my old bones, I've been working all day and my back is killing me! Who knows where she ran off to. She really thinks she's royalty..."

Lyla's soft voice suddenly chimed in from the background, brimming with considerate coaxing.

"Susan, please don't be mad. Sienna is probably... just upset and went out for a walk to clear her head. I'll handle the chores around the house."

After hanging up, Grant's gaze returned to the documents in front of him.

Good thing she was gone; it spared him the eyesore.

Time ticked by, second by second.

The sky outside shifted from gray to pitch black, and he flipped through page after page of his reports.

Grant suddenly remembered that Sienna was still pregnant with his child.

His grandmother cared deeply about this baby. If Sienna ran off and hid his child away, it would be a huge problem.

He picked up his office intercom.

It connected quickly, and his assistant's steady voice came through. "Mr. Gauthier."

"Find out where Sienna is right now," Grant ordered, his tone cold and unreadable. "As fast as you can."