Chapter 14 - The Awakening
Ten minutes later, I walked quietly into the dimly lit recovery room.
Claire lay on the hospital bed, an IV line in her arm, a heart monitor humming a steady, healthy rhythm beside her head.
Her eyes were open.
Though she was pale and weak, her dark eyes held a bright, conscious clarity as she turned her head toward the doorway.
"Ethan..." she whispered, her voice raspy and dry.
I rushed to her bedside, dropping to my knees on the floor, pulling her cold, trembling hand to my lips and kissing her knuckles over and over.
"I'm here, baby," I sobbed out, burying my face in the blankets beside her hip. "I'm right here. You're safe. You're both safe."
Claire reached out with her weak fingers, gently brushing my hair away from my forehead.
"You came home..." she murmured softly, a single tear slipping down her cheek. "I tried to keep the key safe... I knew if I could just hold on until your flight landed..."
"I opened the safe, Claire," I whispered, holding her hand against my face. "I found my father's letter. I know what they did to him, and I know what they tried to do to you."
Claire let out a long, shuddering breath, her shoulders relaxing as if an iron weight had finally been lifted from her soul.
The door pushed open softly.
The nurse walked in, rolling the glass bassinet carrying our newborn son beside Claire's bed.
Claire looked over at the tiny baby boy wrapped in his blue blanket, her eyes filling with a radiant, overwhelming mother's love.
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"Is he... is he okay?" she choked out, reaching her arms toward him.
"He's perfect, Claire," I smiled through my tears, lifting our son from the bassinet and gently setting him against her chest. "He's completely perfect."
