Chapter 235 A Piece of Driftwood

Chapter 235: Chapter 235 A Piece of Driftwood

"Sam. They can’t take him. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. This is my fault."

Eira’s words broke apart as she began to sob.

Kate’s worried gaze moved between them. Then she quietly stepped into the hall and pulled the door almost closed behind her.

Alpha Killian hesitated before placing one hand against Eira’s back.

"Eira, listen to me. You were dreaming."

She clung to his shirt.

"It was only a dream. Sam is alive. The surgery worked. He’s right there."

"Where?"

"Look at the bed."

Eira slowly let go and turned toward Sam.

His chest rose and fell beneath the blanket. The monitor beside him displayed a steady green rhythm.

Eira slid off the cot. Her bare feet hit the cold floor, jolting her fully awake.

"Thank God," she whispered. "It was only a dream."

Alpha Killian pulled a chair behind her.

"Sit down."

She lowered herself into it, still shaking.

He picked up her shoes and crouched in front of her. When he placed one hand around her ankle to help her put them on, his warm skin met hers.

Eira flinched.

"Hold still." His silver-gray eyes lifted to hers. A faint trace of mint lingered between them.

She stared down at him, dazed.

Alpha Killian slipped the shoes onto her feet without a word. Then he pulled another chair beside hers and sat down.

He positioned himself slightly behind her, close enough to notice every change in her expression without crowding her.

Alpha Killian took out his phone and texted Kate.

[Go back to the hotel and get some real sleep. I’ve got Eira. She isn’t alone.]

The room settled into silence. Only the monitor broke it, beeping softly beside Sam’s bed.

Eira watched Sam sleep. Every so often, her gaze drifted toward Alpha Killian.

She could still feel the nightmare. Alpha Killian catching her when her knees gave out. His arms around her. Then the way she had thrown herself against his chest after waking, clinging to him as if he were the only solid thing left in the world.

Like a piece of driftwood in open water.

She hated that thought.

Sebastian had once been her driftwood too.

But Alpha Killian was different.

She glanced at him.

The Alpha of Sterling Pack, a man who controlled boardrooms and closed billion-dollar deals, was sitting in a plastic hospital chair in a small mountain town. He had barely slept, had eaten nothing but vending-machine food, and had not complained once.

Even Eira’s guarded heart softened at the sight.

She lowered her eyes to her shoes.

His firm voice. His gentle hands.

The memory of the night Sebastian had slapped her returned without warning. She had run to a hotel, shaking and humiliated.

The slippers delivered to her room that night had been Alpha Killian’s idea. Eira only learned that later.

They had shared one elevator ride. That was all.

Could Alpha Killian really care that deeply about a stranger?

Outside the window, the sky shifted from black to bruised gray, then slowly brightened into pale gold.

Sam’s eyelids fluttered.

Eira was on her feet before she fully realized he had woken.

"Sam?"

He looked up at her, groggy and weak. Then a small smile touched his cracked lips.

"Hey, Sis."

That single word loosened the fist around Eira’s heart.

Only then did she truly believe the nightmare had been nothing more than a dream.

Around noon, Kate called.

"They cracked," Kate said over the phone. "The whole family folded at the station. Sam’s uncle admitted the missing thumb wasn’t an accident. He broke it on purpose. The district attorney is charging him with felony child abuse."

Eira’s stomach twisted. "And the fall?"

"That part is still under investigation. Detectives are heading to the school to find out how Sam ended up over that railing."

Eira drove to the station that afternoon.

Sam’s aunt and uncle were being held in a small intake area near the front desk. Nate looked thin and worn, while his wife seemed to have aged ten years overnight. Neither of them looked like the people from the cheerful photographs they had used to convince everyone they were caring for Sam.

The moment Nate’s wife saw Eira, she dropped to her knees.

"Please." She grabbed the hem of Eira’s trousers before a deputy could pull her away. "You grew up at the Omega Home. You know what it’s like to come from nothing. Please, don’t let them take Nate away. I have three children. Without him, we won’t have enough to eat."

"Nate knew it was wrong," she sobbed. "We know we messed up. We shouldn’t have done that to Sam. Please, have some mercy."

Eira looked down at the woman’s blotchy face.

Then her eyes landed on the brand-new down jacket draped over Nate’s wife’s shoulders.

Something bitter twisted in Eira’s chest.

"You broke that boy’s thumb on purpose," she said. Her voice was quiet, but every word landed hard. "You collected a two-hundred-dollar disability payment for Sam every month while you starved him and hurt him. And now you’re on your knees asking me for mercy?"

The woman’s sobs grew louder. "Nate’s going to prison!You need to think about what happens to Sam when we’re gone!"

"I am thinking about Sam," Eira said. "I’m going to speak with Miss Gwen about bringing him back to the Omega Home."

The woman’s expression changed.

"If you two hadn’t shown up with custody papers and your so-called family rights, you would never have dragged him away from that home." Eira’s eyes hardened. "He would still be safe. He would still have his whole body. Instead, he’s lying in a hospital bed while doctors try to repair what you did to him."

"Sam getting hurt wasn’t our fault!" the woman screamed. "We didn’t send him to that school. Your husband did!"

The intake area went silent.