Please Come Back, My Love novel Chapter 384

Chapter 384

Lucas POV

I sat in that plastic chair, my hands still tacky with Sophia’s blood, and stared at the surgical ward doors. Nurses passed by, doctors consulted in low voices. the overhead intercom called codes I didn’t understand. None of it registered.

All I could see was Sophia’s face as she fell. The moment of terrible understanding in her eyes when she realized what Claire had done. The way her hands had moved instinctively to protect our child even as her body slammed to concrete,

She’d chosen the baby over herself.

And I’d failed them both.

This was worse than death, Worse than those years after my family’s bankruptcy when I’d lived on the edge of a knife, making deals with people who’d just as soon kill me as look at me. At least then, I’d only had myself to lose.

“Mr. Reynolds?”

I looked up to find Adrian standing over me, his expression carefully neutral. He’d changed into a fresh suit, all traces of the earlier chaos erased except for

the tension around his eyes.

“The police are here,” he said quietly. “They want to speak with you about the incident/”

“Where’s Claire?”

“Security has her in a conference room downstairs. She’s ” He paused, choosing his words carefully. “She’s asking to see you.”

A laugh escaped me, bitter and sharp. “I bet she is.”

“Sir, there’s something else you should know.” Adrian’s voice dropped even lower. “Miss Vanderbilt has been calling her family s lawyers. They re alread talking about self defense, about Miss Cruz being the aggressor–

“She pushed her.” The words came out through clenched teeth. “I saw Claire standing in that doorway without a scratch on her while Sophia- copken ? finish. Couldn’t force myself to describe what I’d seen.

I know, sir. But without witnesses, it becomes a matter of he said, she said. Adrian pulled out his phone, showing me a. However, the hospital’s stairwell cameras caught everything.”

1 Game from security ltage.

I grabbed the phone, my hands shaking as I enlarged the image. There-Claire and Sophia at the top of the stairs, their body language aggressive, Cake's hand reaching out, hooking around Sophia’s ankle as she turned. The deliberate shift of weight that sent Sophia tumbling backward while Claire clung herself on the doorframe.

It was all there. Every calculated second of it

Send this to the police. I said, my voice steady for the first time since I’d seen Sophia fall. And make wang saw las vey get a gy within the hou.

Already done, su Adrian hevital There’s one for thong Miva Vanderleda i clabuntg the pican sex giying day to t

het baby

She opened her mouth, then closed it again.

“That’s what I thought.” I leaned in closer, close enough to see the fear in her eyes. “I’ve spent the last seven years cleaning up your family’s messes, šarzÅR your father’s company from bankruptcy twice, burying scandals that would have destroyed your precious reputation. Whatever debt I owed you? 1 part it back in full years ago.”

“Lucas-”

‘If Sophia and her child don’t make it through this,” I continued, my voice dropping to barely above a whisper, you’ll spend the rest of your lite in MESOA And I’ll make sure you never see daylight again.”

Claire’s legs gave out. She collapsed onto the floor, her designer dress pooling around her, all pretense of composure finally shuttered. You dunt meat (905 Lucas, you can’t-

“Take her back downstairs, I told the guards. And make sure she doesn’t leave until the police active.

They hauled her to her feet her protests fading as they dragged her toward the elevator. I turned away, peable te

hands around her threat.

“Mr. Reynolds?”

I spun around to find a man m his late filties Manding in the corridor, his face Isgued withy

“What’s going on?” His accent was thicker than usual, stress bleeding through every word. “I’ve been looking for my daughter for minutes. The nurses said she wasn’t in her mother’s room, and then I heard something about an emergency His gaze shifted to the surgical ward doors, and his face went gray.

“She’s not in there, is she?”