Chapter 177
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Chapter 177
Winter passed out from the stomach pain.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself lying in a hospital bed.
Zac was there when she woke up. He leaned in with both hands braced on either side of her pillow, his voice so gentle it was almost like he was afraid of scaring her. “How are you feeling now p>
Winter’s gaze was still unfocused. She looked at Zac, and it took her several seconds to pull her thoughts back from the tree-lined road outside Blackwood Manor.
“How did I p>
“It was probably a stress reaction brought on by emotional trauma.” Zac had already heard a brief version of what happened from Zion.
The last time Winter was kidnapped, Zion had answered a call Zac made to her phone, so the two of them already knew each other. Zion also knew Zac was Winter’s friend, and a decent man, so he trusted
him.
Winter’s lashes fluttered.
Emotional trauma?
Her?
What trauma could she possibly have?
All she had done was learn the truth.
She had learned that there was no future left between her and Chris. She had already decided to leave
the country, and she had no intention of getting tangled up with him again.
But the second she thought of Chris, a dull ache started in her stomach again.
Zac pulled the blanket up over her. “You’ve just been under too much stress. Get some sleep p>
“I want to go home,” Winter said hoarsely.
The moment Zion heard that, he stepped forward. “Of course, Ms. Scott. I’ll take you home right away p>
It wasn’t as if he had brought her to this hospital on purpose. In that situation, it had simply been the closest hospital to Blackwood Manor.
Skyla was staying there too. If it hadn’t been an emergency, he never would have brought Winter to the
same hospital.
Zac drove Winter home himself. He gave her a few reminders before she got out, then sat in the car and watched her walk upstairs. He didn’t start the engine until he saw the lights come on in her apartment.
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Then he stayed there for a while longer.
Even with that kind of history between them, Chris still wouldn’t let her go.
Lately, the Davis family and the Zeller family had joined forces against Chris. Zac knew very well that if Chris divorced Winter, both families would back off.
But Chris was still holding his ground.
Zac had grown up with him. Out of everyone he knew, Chris was the most stubborn.
After she got home, Winter took a shower and sat down on the edge of her bed. Water dripped from the ends of her hair onto her slippers.
She sat there without moving.
She looked like a lifeless rag doll.
After a long while, she finally opened the drawer, took out a white pill bottle, and shook two sleeping pills into her palm before swallowing them dry.
She hadn’t taken sleeping pills in quite some time.
After the procedure, she took them every now and then. After Jacob’s men beat her, she needed them every night just to fall asleep.
After Jacob died, she started relying on them less and less. Later, once she began training with Roy, she came home so exhausted every day that she could fall asleep without them.
But tonight, she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep.
She still needed to stay strong. She had to keep training with Roy so she could protect herself and, just like she had said, disappear from Chris’s world.
But Zac had told her the night before that there was nothing wrong with her checkup. So was the stomach pain really just a stress reaction brought on by emotional trauma?
She remembered that when she first went to a doctor for sleeping pills, the doctor had warned her about a few things in a careful, roundabout way.
The doctor had been tactful, but Winter understood what he meant.
She was showing signs of depression, and it was beginning to affect her physically.
The next morning, when she woke up, she saw an unread message on her phone. It had come in half an hour earlier.
It was from Skyla.
Skyla had sent her a photo.
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Sunlight spilled into the hospital room through a gap in the curtains. On the couch, Chris sat with his eyes closed, his head tipped back against the cushion.
He looked like he had spent the entire night there watching over her.
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Florence
A passionate storyteller who brings emotions to life through her words. When she’s not writing, she finds peace nurturing her garden.