The Divorced Military Queen Awakens (by Sadie Baxter) novel Chapter 427

Chapter 427 Tongues Tied

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By the time the sentence finished ricocheting around the room, Quinn wanted nothing more than for the floor to crack open and swallow her whole.

If ever there were proof that explaining only made things worse, that was it.

“In any case, I can walk on my own,” she blurted out, face still red as a tomato.

Julius‘ obsidian eyes remained fixed on her, steady and unblinking, and she thought she could see the earlier gloom receding by degrees, like night retreating from the edge of a slow dawn.

“All right,” he murmured at last, “I understand.”

Huh? What exactly does he understand? That I can walk on my own? Or that I do, in fact, want to sleep with him?

Either way, with the sadness gone, his eyes were breathtaking.

At last, they reached the hospital, its sterile glass façade gleaming under the midday sun while ambulances idled like restless beasts along the curb.

Julius guided her to the floor where Lena’s name glowed faintly on a row of doorplates, then brushed a reassuring hand across Quinn’s shoulder. “I have some things to handle in the hospital. I’ll come back to you in a little while.”

Quinn answered with a quick nod.

Only after the elevator doors slid shut behind Julius did she shift her weight onto the crutches and inch down the corridor toward Lena’s ward, the rubber tips tapping out a determined, uneven rhythm.

gone Lena sat propped against two pillows, hospital gown hanging loose over shoulders unnaturally narrow. Her scalp was bare and gleaming, the hair sacrificed to treatment; her complexion carried the chalky pallor of someone who had spent too long wrestling monsters in the dark.

Quinn paused at the doorway, balancing on her crutches. “Hi, I am—”

”

Lena’s eyes sparked with sudden energy. “You’re Quinn Bridger, aren’t you?”

Quinn’s eyebrows lifted. A flicker of surprise fractured her usual steady composure. “You know

me?”

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Chapter 427 Tongues Tied

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Lena nodded, her cheeks warming with mild embarrassment. “Leander–oh, no, that’s not it. Rowan is the one who showed me your photograph. He has also spoken of you often.”

Quinn inclined her head, gratitude softening the edge of her tone. “Thank you for saving my brother back then.”

Lena broke into a gentle smile. “It would be truer to say your brother saved me. My family had just died, and I was completely alone. Finding Rowan kept the loneliness from swallowing me whole.”

In those bleak days, the world had felt stripped to a single thread.

She and Rowan clung to that thread–two souls pressed back–to–back against the dark, convinced they had no one but each other.

A fragile laugh slipped from Lena’s lips, barely louder than the heartbeat monitor. “If it weren’t for Rowan, I probably wouldn’t still be here. Even this treatment–without him, I’d never have stood a chance.”

She knew that had she remained in Doria, she would probably have waited for death, illness gnawing day after day.

Quinn’s brows knitted. “Your illness…”

“Leukemia. But Rowan has already found a perfect match, and the donor is willing to donate the stem cells as soon as possible,” Lena explained. For a moment, hope brightened her eyes, eclipsing the fatigue that lived there.

Quinn hesitated, words catching in her throat. “Lena, about the donor…”

Her question broke off as the door swung open with a soft hiss of hydraulics. Rowan stepped inside, the morning light at his back, shoulders squared with easy confidence.

The man closed the distance in three long strides. “Quinn! When did you get here? I thought your flight wasn’t landing in Celosia until later today.”

“My original flight had issues, so I caught an earlier one,” Quinn explained. “I wanted to see Lena first before meeting up with you.”

Rowan’s gaze dropped to the cast hugging her leg. “Why the hurry? You could’ve waited until your leg healed before hopping on a plane.”

“I need to talk with you later, Rowan. It’s something important,” she said.

Rowan’s smile warmed. “We’ll step outside in a bit. Anyway, how’s your recovery coming

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Chapter 427 Tongues Tied

along?”

“Not bad. A few more days and the cast comes off.”

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“Good,” Rowan murmured before walking to Lena’s bedside table and opening the boxed meal he had brought. Lowering it within her reach, he spoke with tender insistence. “These are your favorites. Give them a try.”

Lena nodded, taking dainty bites of the breakfast Rowan had prepared, savoring the simple comfort of warm food and warmer company.

Lena had managed only a few mouthfuls when the color drained from her cheeks. Without hesitation, she tugged a crumpled plastic bag from her purse, bent forward, and retched again. and again.

Rowan was beside her in an instant, one arm bracing her trembling shoulders, worry carved into every line of his face.

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