My Fake Boyfriend Is the School Bad Boy novel Chapter 249

Chapter 249

Liliana and Gerald didn’t move from the dance floor for over an hour.

Her shoes fell off.

His tie somehow ended up on Max’s forehead at one point.

:))

They were smiling, laughing, twirling, and dazed with too much activity and not enough to eat.

And as the night finally started to slow down and the guests had gone, Liliana rested her head against Gerald’s shoulder as they stood in the entrance of their new home. The stars were shining brightly above, the night was cool, and the stillness between them was pleasant.

“We did it,” she whispered.

Gerald leaned in to kiss her hair. “Yeah. We did.”

Eight Months Later

Gerald paced the hospital corridor in bare feet.

He had left his shoes at home in the rush to get Liliana out into the car. Four hours ago. He’d had one cold cup of hospital coffee, three curt updates from a nurse, and no sleep. His shirt was done up wrong. His jaw was bristly. His hands trembled uncontrollably.

He hated hospitals. Too many memories of blood and loss, of apologies that came too late and those he couldn’t save. But this time, it

was not death that he waited for.

In the delivery room, Liliana was struggling.

She still had not yelled at him. Not yet. Which scared him. He had read them all. He had watched all the videos. Screaming at the partner,

it appeared, was standard. Screaming was standard. Sending the father to hell was all but tradition.

Liliana, however, had nearly been too motionless. Intense. White. The sort of pain he could not fix, and that bothered him.

The nurse passed by again and gave him a sympathetic look. “You should sit down, sweetheart.”

“I’m fine,” he said automatically.

He wasn’t.

It had been months since he’d left that life, the blades, the work, and the shadows. No blood on his hands anymore. No running anymore. He’d taken a position with the pack’s internal security detail. Low-profile work. Steady hours. Enough to keep his instincts sharp, but not enough to draw him back into the shadows.

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Chapter 249

He’d gone to therapy. Learned how to breathe through the panic. He learned he didn’t have to be anyone else’s instrument anymore. That

he could be, something else. Something different from a partner. A parent.

And still, nothing had prepared him for this. For the complete helplessness of hearing the woman he loved scream behind a closed door

and being unable to do anything about it.

He looked up at the ceiling. Let them be okay,” he mouthed to no one in particular.

Then the door opened. A nurse came out, her scrubs disheveled, her face drained, but she smiled.

“Want to meet your daughter?”

He stood there frozen.

The words didn’t penetrate at first. Daughter. His daughter. He had a daughter.

His heart lodged in his throat. He nodded, couldn’t speak, and just followed along behind the nurse in a dare.

The room was quiet. Lights were lowered. Beeping monitors. The pungent smell of antiseptic in the air. Liliana looked tired out, eyes half- closed, hair plastered to her forehead with sweat, but at catching sight of him, she smiled.

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