Chapter 520
Chapter 519:
Carmen pressed her face against Justin’s shoulder, Aaden warm between them, and allowed herself to believe, just for tonight, that this could last. She felt the weight of the last seven years — the loneliness, the confusion, the grief of a life lived without its own story — begin to lift. In its place settled something fragile and terrifying and new.
For the first time since she had woken up in that hospital, she wasn’t just surviving.
She was home.
The phone rang at 6:17 AM.
Jocelyn reached for it automatically, her hand finding the device on the nightstand without opening her eyes. She had learned to function on minimal sleep, to process information before consciousness fully returned — a survival skill refined over years of managing crises.
“Wolfe p>
“Jocelyn, darling.” The voice was familiar, cloying, and desperate. “It’s your mother p>
She opened her eyes. Beside her, Gaston stirred, his arm tightening around her waist in automatic protection. She mouthed “Elouise” at him and watched his expression harden from sleep to alertness in a single heartbeat.
“What do you want p>
“I need to see you. To explain. Your grandmother’s condition, the stress I’ve been under — Robert abandoned me, Jocelyn. Threw me out like garbage. I have nothing. No money, no home, no p>
“Not my problem p>
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“You’re my daughter!” Elouise’s voice rose, cracked, and collapsed into something that might have been genuine desperation. “Whatever else I’ve done, whatever mistakes I’ve made, I’m still your mother. You owe me p>
“I owe you nothing.” Jocelyn sat up, the sheets pooling around her waist, her free hand finding Gaston’s. “You stood by while they hurt me. While they locked me in closets and told me I was worthless. You chose them, every time. And now they’ve chosen to throw you away, and you want me to pick up the pieces?” She laughed — a sound with no warmth in it. “No. Find somewhere else to beg. We’re done p>
She hung up. Blocked the number. Set the phone down with hands that weren’t quite steady.
Gaston said nothing. He simply pulled her back down and tucked her against his chest, his heartbeat steady and strong against her spine.
“Okay?” he murmured.
“Okay.” She closed her eyes. “I should feel something. Guilt, maybe. Or satisfaction. But I just feel — a profound and final quiet. Like a door I’ve been pounding on my whole life just dissolved into dust p>
“That’s not emptiness.” His lips pressed against her hair. “That’s peace. The peace of finally being free p>
They lay in silence as the winter dawn crept slowly across the ceiling. The city was still quiet, the first morning of the new year holding its breath. Jocelyn listened to the rhythm of Gaston’s breathing and felt a sense of closure that was stark and absolute. The ghosts of her past — Elouise, Robert — had finally been exorcised. Not with a bang, but with the quiet click of a button.
Gaston’s phone buzzed — a different tone, reserved for family.
He answered in monosyllables, his expression shifting from relaxed to focused. When he hung up, Jocelyn was already watching him.
“Justin,” she said.