The Divorced Military Queen Awakens (by Sadie Baxter) novel Chapter 418

Chapter 418 Gavin Visits

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Everett’s voice rang out, low yet measured, the way a man speaks when he believes he owes a debt no one can name. “While you were unconscious,” he had said, “I took the necklace to the diagnostics laboratory for authentication. They confirmed it is the very piece the Fane family once fastened around Yara’s neck. The fire damaged several links, so I had a master restorer clean and mend them. Only now, after proper care, do I dare return it to you.”

Quinn accepted the ruby necklace with both hands, its cool weight startlingly familiar. For a breathless instant, the gem’s crimson heart mirrored her mother’s smile, and the hospital ward fell away like a dream.

After Everett left, she sat by the window and studied the necklace for hours. Daylight bled into dusk, then into full darkness, yet she remained there until her eyes stung. Only when the ward lights clicked on did she ease the lid shut, setting the velvet box gently on the nightstand beside her bed.

Later, after her evening shower, steam still curling from the bathroom doorway, she stepped into the dim room and froze. Someone sat in the visitor’s chair at the foot of her bed, framed by the green glow of the heart–monitor.

It was Gavin. Family physician to the Whitethorn family, a man known for arriving with solutions instead of explanations.

She had met him once before when Julius‘ insomnia threatened to consume the heir from the inside out.

Now Gavin sat hunched over the night–stand, the velvet box open, the ruby necklace resting in his gloved palm. His expression was so focused it bordered on reverence, as though the jewel whispered secrets only he could hear.

Quinn tightened the belt of her robe and cleared her throat. “Mr. Huxley, it is well past midnight. What exactly brings you to my room?”

Gavin jerked upright, eyes wide behind silver–rimmed glasses. “This necklace–is it yours?”

“Yes,” she said, unable to hide her confusion.

“How did you come to possess it?” His voice cracked with urgency that did not fit the hush of

the ward.

“Why shouldn’t I? It belonged to my mother.” Quinn’s brows knitted as she met his gaze.

“Your mother? But years ago, this very piece was traded overseas for food and medicine, was it

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Chapter 418 Gavin Visits

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not?”

Quinn’s heartbeat stumbled. “How do you know about that?”

The question alone confirmed what Gavin had feared. This was the necklace Julius had hunted for half his life.

As a boy, Gavin had once seen Julius sketch this very pendant in meticulous detail, puzzled that a child who despised finery would labor over any jewel.

“If I ever find that necklace,” young Julius had whispered, “I might finally repay the little girl who saved me.”

“Repay?”

“Yes. It was her mother’s, yet she bartered it away for food and medicine. That girl saved me, so I want to repay her. Guess what, Gavin. She was younger than I was, yet she wanted me to live,” young Julius had said.

For the first time, Gavin had seen light in Julius’s frost–blue eyes—a flicker of life straining to stay lit.

Gavin had murmured, “Do you even want to live?” though he doubted Julius would answer.

“I don’t know,” Julius had said. “But I wonder if I meet her again, will she still choose to save me? Will she wish for me to live?”

That night, the question had drifted unanswered into the dark. Tonight, Gavin finally knew the

answer.

Yes–she would. The realization rang like a bell through the hush, bright and undeniable.

The little girl who had once hauled Julius Whitethorn back from the brink of death had been Quinn Bridger all along.

When fate spun them together a second time, Quinn saved him again, her every breath a silent plea that he keep living.

No wonder Julius kept insisting the hand that preserved his life had always belonged to Quinn.

Their bond had sprouted in childhood, rooting itself long before either understood what it

meant.

That was why Julius now wagered his life without flinching–every last breath offered in tribute to Quinn.

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Chapter 418 Gavin Visits

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