I Stopped Loving Him When He Let Me Bleed Out novel Chapter 482

"And here's the absolute kill shot... The warehouse foreman confirmed that this specific batch of hardware never set foot inside the ER. When he logged the delivery, the actual equipment was nowhere to be found."

Sienna shoved the explosive document into her folder and checked her watch. Ten-o-two.

She quickly stuffed the entire stack of evidence into her bag.

"This is everything I need. It's infinitely more damning than I ever expected. Isaac, thank you. You've handed me this case on a silver platter. I'll spearhead the entire process from here, so you're completely off the hook. I'll lock this evidence down under high-level confidentiality; your name won't be anywhere near the blast radius."

Isaac stared at her intently.

"Truthfully, this is entirely selfish. I've been desperately trying to push through structural reforms, but the old guard beats me down at every turn. If these parasites aren't eradicated, my entire agenda is dead in the water. Nailing this audit is the greatest favor you could possibly do for me."

Sienna stood up, slinging her heavy bag over her shoulder and extending a hand.

"Then here's to a highly lucrative partnership."

Isaac stood as well, grasping her hand in a firm shake.

"To a lucrative partnership."

Outside Serenity Books, a shadow shifted violently behind the thick trunk of an oak tree.

A sliver of a pale jacket vanished into the bustling crowd...

Finn stood completely paralyzed in front of Maeve's door before finally raising a heavy hand to knock.

The door cracked open. Maeve stood in the entryway wearing a pale lavender loungewear set. She looked noticeably thinner than the last time he'd seen her, but she carried a resilient energy.

She stepped aside, silently inviting him in.

Two glasses of water were already sweating on the living room coffee table, clearly laid out in nervous anticipation of his arrival.

Finn dropped onto the couch, while Maeve took the armchair directly across from him.

The glass table sat squarely between them—a polite, agonizing barrier that kept them at an awkward, guarded distance.

Maeve leaned forward, dragging a massive photo album out from a drawer and sliding it across the glass.

"Look through this."

Finn stared blankly down at the heavy spine.

The dark brown leather cover was heavily worn, its edges rubbed completely white from years of obsessive handling.

He cracked open the first page. A single photograph stared back at him.

Fourth page.

He was a full-grown man now, striding through a set of glass terminal doors in his crisp flight academy uniform, completely locked in on whatever destination lay ahead.

He flipped through page after page...

The entire album chronicled his forgotten childhood, his turbulent adolescence, and his seamless transition into manhood...

And every single one of those intimately captured moments had been taken without his knowledge, from the shadows.

Finn's hands began to shake violently. The crushing realization that he had been so closely monitored for decades left him completely disoriented and suffocated.

He couldn't find a single word to bridge the agonizing gap.

He mechanically reached for the glass of water, choking down a swallow just to moisten his bone-dry throat.

"I flew back once a year," Maeve finally broke the suffocating silence. "Sometimes I stayed for a few days. Other times, just a single afternoon." She swallowed hard. "Those photos are the only pieces of you I was allowed to keep."

Finn looked up, his eyes frosting over into a dead, impenetrable winter.

"What is the point of unloading this onto me now?"