The Divorced Military Queen Awakens (by Sadie Baxter) novel Chapter 652

Chapter 652 Dawn And Her Promise

Inside the orphanage, Dawn stood apart. Her sable hair and ink–dark eyes Kandria. Every child there was an orphan, yet Dawn still had a mother–the in the hush of machines.

Without Megan’s money, neither of them would have crossed the orphanage gates.

“Mom, when will you wake?” she whispered. “I miss you so much.”

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cr as foreign in

at mother breathed only

She longed to see those lids lift, to hear “Dawn, my darling,” to feel arms wrap around her–dreams stacked like stars above the ward.

After finishing the bread, she copied the nurses‘ motions, kneading her mother’s limbs. She lugged a basin of warm water and washed the slack skin with the reverence of a novice nun.

She was not yet five, a willow–thin slip of a girl, yet every movement she made around the hospital bed carried the practiced economy of a seasoned nurse. She adjusted the IV drips, smoothed the sheets, patted her mother’s numb arm, then climbed onto a chair and waited, tiny heels drumming the metal rung beneath her.

This was the hour when a nurse usually arrived, plastic cup of lukewarm purée in hand, ready to send the mush through the thin tube snaking into her mom’s nose. Minutes slid by like dusty sunlight. Seeing no one, Dawn hopped off the chair and darted from the ward, a swift shadow in mismatched sneakers.

Dawn spotted Anna Rourke, the nurse assigned to her mother, lounging in front of the nurses‘ station television. She hurried over, hair bouncing, and tugged at the woman’s sleeve. “Ms. Anna, my mom needs her food now,” Dawn said, voice small yet firm.

The soap opera’s music swelled from the screen as Anna finally looked down, eyes narrowing at the interruption. “Your mother’s already half–dead. Missing one meal won’t kill her,” she muttered.

Dawn felt her fists ball at her sides, though her chin trembled. “That’s not tr Megan paid you!”

feel hungry, and Ms.

Anna rolled her eyes, waving a dismissive hand toward the flickering television. “Can’t you see I’m busy? I’ll do it when I feel like it.”

Unwilling to surrender, Dawn stepped closer and seized Anna’s sleeve with both hands. “No, you have to feed her first.”

Snarling, Anna planted both palms on Dawn’s shoulders and sent her sprawling across the cold linoleum. “Get lost! Keep pestering me, and I’ll toss you out of the orphanage!”

Dawn coughed, pushed herself upright, and dusted imaginary dirt from her dress. “You still have to feed my mom,” she insisted, breath shaky but words steady.

Again and again, Dawn lunged for Anna, only to be knocked down, only to climb back up, as relentless as tide against rock. Bruises blossomed beneath her sleeves, each throb urging tears, yet she bit her lip and swallowed every sob.

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Chapter 652 Dawn And Her Promise

Megan’s words echoed inside her small skull. Crying helps nothing—no one her

ars.

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the wind. “If you don’t

Gathering her courage, Dawn raised her voice, though it trembled like a ma feed my mom, I’ll go outside and tell everyone you took Ms. Megan’s money and now want my mom to starve!”

Anna’s face paled. Other nurses hurried over, glancing around the corridor with worry crawling across their features. “Enough already. Just go feed the woman before real trouble starts.”

Anna jerked to her feet, stomped to Quinn’s bedside, and shoved a spoon between slack lips. “Rent day’s almost here,” she snarled. “If Megan doesn’t pay up, you two will be thrown onto the street.”

Dawn clambered onto the mattress and curled herself against her mother’s unmoving body. “Mom, are you full? Tomorrow, I’ll be a whole day older. I’ll grow up fast, so please, wake up soon, okay?”

Content with that promise, the little girl let her lashes fall and drifted toward sleep.

She didn’t care if she got hurt. As long as her mother ate her fill, Dawn could endure the pain.

To her, the scrapes felt like nothing at all.

The next morning, a well–heeled businessman arrived, announcing a charitable donation for the orphanage.

The vice director personally welcomed the benefactor.

The children scrubbed themselves spotless, some even fussing with their hair and borrowed ribbons.

None had been told adoption was on the table, yet every child knew that if the visitor liked you, life could change overnight.

Against their freshly washed faces, Dawn’s smudged clothes and tangled hair

more.

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