#Chapter 173: An Idea

DEREK “Kill her?!” The words tore out of me before I could stop them, louder than I meant, harsher than I wanted. They echoed off the sterile white walls of the hospital hallway like a weapon fired in a church—sacrilegious and final. Aiden gasped. His fingers slipped, dropping his half-eaten candy wrapper to the floor. His lip trembled. His eyes, so much like hers, went wide with a kind of fear that made my stomach turn. And then—just like that—he started to cry. Not loud, not dramatic. No sobs. Just a quiet, breathless sort of crying that fractured something deep in me. The kind where the pain is too big to find words for. The kind that makes you older just from hearing it. I scooped him into my arms in a single motion, pressing him against my chest. He clung to me instantly—arms locking tight around my neck, face burrowed into my shoulder like he could block out the world by hiding in my shirt. I felt his tears soak through the fabric. Felt the little tremors of his c