The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 12

"No need. I'll get one myself."

Quinn walked over, holding Archie's hand. The little boy was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Sloane, Archie was watching cartoons in the lounge and might be a little sleepy. Be careful on your way home."

Her gaze was crystal clear, her tone completely natural. It was as if the woman who had been sobbing in Garrison's arms just an hour ago—the one who had shot Sloane that triumphant, provocative look—was nothing but a figment of Sloane's imagination.

"Got it," Sloane replied coldly.

"I want to stay with Quinn..." Archie muttered, his lower lip jutting out.

Quinn crouched down and gently ruffled the boy's hair. "I have to go work with your dad. Be a good boy and go home with mom, okay? I'll bring you a present tonight."

Archie finally gave a reluctant nod, slipping his small hand into Sloane's much colder one.

Hand in hand, Sloane and Archie walked out of the hospital and onto the bustling streets of Stockholm.

It was exactly two in the afternoon, the pale winter sun filtering down from above. Sloane squeezed her eyes shut, desperately trying to scrub the image of that cafe embrace from her mind. But the memory played on a grueling loop, every slow-motion frame delivering a fresh wave of suffocating despair.

"Mom, let's go do something fun!" Archie looked up, his little face flushed with excitement.

"Sure. Where do you want to go, sweetie? The playground?" Sloane forced herself to rally.

"Playgrounds are boring! I want to go to... The Stockholm Maritime Museum!" Archie's eyes lit up. "Quinn told me they have a giant squid there! She promised to take me when the weather cleared up."

Quinn again. Another sharp pang lanced through Sloane's chest.

But looking down at her son's eager face, she swallowed her rejection and managed a smile. "Alright. The Maritime Museum it is."

The museum was situated right on the waterfront, quite a distance away. As the cab bumped along the roads, that familiar wave of nausea roiled in Sloane's stomach. She pressed her lips together, fighting it back with everything she had.

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