The Divorced Military Queen Awakens (by Sadie Baxter) novel Chapter 648

Chapter 648 Vanishing Point

Chapter 648 Vanishing Point

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Raymond lifted tired eyes. “How’s Mr. Whitethorn holding up?”

Laurence exhaled, the word a heavy verdict. “Terrible.”

Laura’s reaction mirrored his; the moment she set eyes on Julius, the same bleak assessment slammed into her ribs.

It wasn’t only the man’s physical decline that grated; something far more fragile–his will–had fracture.

His hair stuck out in wild tufts that looked neither brushed nor washed. The once impeccable suit now sagged, wrinkled, and stained, while a coarse beard shadowed the jaw Laura remembered as clean and commanding.

10

This man had always been high and mighty; today, he seemed a fallen statue, chipped and half–buried in

dust.

Before him stretched a wall of monitors, each carrying a live feed from drones skimming the waves or prowling the ocean floor.

Julius‘ fingers skittered across the keyboard, restless, feverish.

Every few seconds, the images flipped–sunlit crests, murky depths, endless blue.

A raw whisper leaked from him like air from a punctured lung. “Quinn, stop hiding from me. Please, no more games. Come out–come back–show yourself.”

Laura’s chest tightened, sympathy blooming with painful suddenness.

She stepped closer, softening her tone as though coaxing a wounded animal. “Julius, you need rest. You’re running on maybe one or two hours of sleep a day–your body can’t keep this up.”

His gaze never left the shifting screens. “If I canale Quinn, this body is useless anyway.”

“Do you really think this helps? If she walks through that door and sees you like this, she’ll be devastated!”

Quinn loved Julius so fiercely that she would never have wanted him to grind himself into ruin.

His hands froze above the keyboard. “You’re right. She used to say she loved my face–my body.”

He spun abruptly, desperation burning in his eyes. “Tell me–do I look that terrible now? Will she turn away when she sees me?”

Laura opened her mouth, but no words emerged.

Julius closed the distance, each step deliberate. “You were her best friend. There’s something I’ve never understood, and you’re going to clear it up for me.”

“What… What do you want to know?”

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Chapter 648 Vanishing Point

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Julius leaned forward, the lines of his mouth tightening before snapping open again. “Tell me–why did she lie to me?” he demanded, every syllable vibrating with betrayal.

Laura blinked, caught completely off guard. “Lie to you?” she echoed, the question trembling in mid–air.

In two strides, Julius closed the distance, boots slapping the marble like gunshots. His hands crashed onto Laura’s shoulders, fingers digging so deep she felt bone ache. “She swore that no matter the storm, we’d face it together. So why–when that helicopter was moments from bursting apart–did she refuse stand beside her?”

Laura swallowed, pain lacing her voice. “Because… Because she wanted you safe and sound.”

Julius‘ grip tightened, those lean fingers pressing as though they meant to punch straight through her clavicles.

The whites of his eyes flared crimson. “Did it never cross her mind that if she vanished, I’d have no reason -no ability–to keep living? Why keep me from that last fight? Why deny me even the privilege of dying at her side?”

Doesn’t she see that this–forcing me to outlive her–is the worst punishment she could invent?

In that burning instant, Julius grasped, for the first time, the hollow agony his father must have felt the day his mother chose death.

Death itself was not the monster. The monster was being sentenced to keep breathing when the only heart that mattered had stopped.

Laura’s complexion whitened from the pain as he grabbed her; beads of sweat gathered, fat as pearls, then rolled down the curve of her cheek.

Julius stood now like a cornered beast–desperate, electric–ready to shred the world simply because it still existed.

Gasping, Laura forced the words past clenched teeth. “That’s… that’s because Quinn believes she’ll find her way back to you. She doesn’t want you beside her in death. She wants you beside her in life–both of you, still breathing.”

Julius jerked, as if lightning had kissed his spine. He whispered, disoriented, “In life?”

“She’s missing, not dead. I know she’s alive,” Laura said, voice gathering strength. “Quinn never loses. If, at the last second, she told Raymond she could escape before the blast, then she had a way.”

A ragged laugh tore out of Julius–one bark, then another, spiraling into hysteria. “She also said she’d crawl through fire, through hell itself, to reach me. Where is she now? She lied. She lied to me…”

“Ju… Julius…” Laura croaked, her face grey, convinced his hands would pulverize her shoulders any second.

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