Chapter 140

Claire's POV The fragile peace I'd found at home shattered like glass against concrete when her phone rang at two-thirty on a Tuesday afternoon. I was in the kitchen, attempting to help prepare food as a way to feel useful despite the suspension that had stripped away my professional identity, when the landline rang. My mother answered with her usual warm greeting, but I watched her expression transform from pleasant curiosity to shocked concern within seconds. The color drained from her face as she listened, her free hand gripping the kitchen counter with white-knuckled intensity that made my stomach clench with sudden dread. "We'll be right there," she said, her voice tight with controlled panic as she ended the call and turned to me with eyes that reflected barely contained fear. "That was the hospital. Your father's condition has taken a sudden turn for the worse." The words drove all air from my lungs as the implications crashed over me in waves. My father, who had been responding