The Divorced Military Queen Awakens (by Sadie Baxter) novel Chapter 660

Chapter 660 New Star Shines

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“Jessic, you truly wish to teach some child from the orphanage?” Mindy exclaimed, voice pitched high with alarm. “She just got lucky today, nothing more–hardly worth your time!”

“This is no stroke of luck,” Jessie replied, eyes steady. “Her talent surpasses any I have witnessed. Guiding her would be the greatest honor of my career.”

A ripple of whispers threaded through the banquet hall. Guests who moments ago dismissed Dawn now stared with newfound wonder.

Jessie hailed from a lineage of pianists; her grandfather’s name alone could open concert doors across continents. If she said that about Dawn, then the child’s future brilliance was all but prophesied.

Emma bit down hard on her lower lip. The teacher’s declaration announced to everyone present that the orphan’s gift eclipsed her own.

In stark contrast to his wife and daughter, Edmund was in a very different mood. Where his wife and daughter saw a threat, he glimpsed an untapped miracle waiting to be welcomed into their lives.

The more dazzling the child turned out, the wider Julius‘ approving smile would stretch. And the brighter that smile grew, the richer Edmund’s reward was bound to be.

“Of course we can! Ms. Jessie, you will be Dawn’s very first piano tutor, and what a blessing that is. Let’s toast the perfect teacher we’ve found for our little prodigy.”

Crystal goblets lifted in unison, catching the chandelier’s light like shards of sunrise. Laughter rolled across the room, loud and confident, as though the future had already been bought and gift–wrapped.

On the far side of town, the orphanage doors burst inward. A woman stormed through the foyer, heels hammering the tiles. “Where is Dawn and her mother? Where?”

One of the staff members sprinted down the corridor, breathless, to drag the deputy director, Casey Heffley, from his office.

The moment Casey recognized those fierce eyes, he muttered a curse under his breath.

Megan Yates was back, trouble in a leather jacket.

“Dawn and her mother,” Megan said without the slightest nod of courtesy, “where are they?”

She had just checked the infirmary. The bed where Dawn’s mother–motionless these many months- usually lay was still there, white sheets folded with maddening exactness, yet the woman herself had vanished. And by nightfall, Dawn would usually curl up beside that bed, a tiny sentinel. Now both had disappeared, leaving nothing but sterile linen and silence.

“They’re no longer here at the orphanage,” Casey managed.

Thank heaven, he told himself, the paperwork had been stamped that afternoon. Had Megan arrived even an hour earlier, everything might have changed.

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3.15 Wed, Dec 31

Chapter 660 New Star Shines

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“How dare you! Did you throw them out? I paid your orphanage good money! How could you drive them into the street?”

“Paid money?” Casey sniffed. “Your money wouldn’t cover a single day of a coma patient’s care. Without our charity, they’d have starved long ago.”

It had been the director’s decision to take in Dawn and her comatose mother in the first place.

Looking back, Casey decided the deal was turning rather profitable after all; Edmund’s recent donations were generous, and the tidy sum slipped privately into Casey’s own pocket sweeter still.

Fury sparked; Megan seized Casey’s collar, yanking him so close he smelled the steel on her breath. “You really did toss them out? Looks like I’ve been far too polite with you. You didn’t take me seriously at all!”

Casey yelped, face turning the color of raw beet as the fabric strangled his throat.

Someone lunged to intervene. Megan pivoted and kicked that person in the ribs.

“Back off! Anyone else comes near, I swear I’ll put them in traction!”

The hallway froze; no one so much as breathed.

“I told you before—if I left the girl and her mother here, I’d pay every cent they needed. But if anyone dared throw them out, I’d come for blood.”

“You… You wouldn’t! That’s… that’s a crime,” Casey stammered.

“Crime?” She laughed, low and dangerous. “I’ve already done time. If anything happened to them, I’m perfectly willing to go back behind bars.”

Casey’s complexion collapsed to ash.

“W–We didn’t kick them out,” he blurted, eyes darting toward the concrete wall that threatened to meet his skull. “Dawn has been… adopted.”

“Adopted?” Megan’s brow knitted. “She isn’t an orphan. How could she be adopted?”

“It was… a special arrangement,” Casey whispered, lips bone–dry. “Her mother’s condition worsened suddenly. We lack the resources to treat a coma this severe. A wealthy benefactor agreed to adopt Dawn and, at the same time, transfer her mother to a hospital for proper care…”

Casey stumbled over his words, the explanation tripping against his teeth as though every syllable were a stone he had to swallow.

Megan felt something was off. A kind man, she knew, could simply donate toward a treatment. Why, then, orchestrate an entire adoption? The logic felt warped, the kindness too elaborate to trust.

“Fine, then. Two more questions. First, who exactly adopted Dawn Whitethorn? Second, in which hospital is her mother being kept?”