Those words hit Nina\u2019s heart like a bomb.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She froze, as if she hadn\u2019t heard what he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2026 did you say?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sean didn\u2019t dare to look her in the eye. \u201cIt\u2019s bad to keep things from the dead in the house. Isabelle needs to rest.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This time, Nina heard him clearly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She slowly pulled back her hands, letting them fall to her sides. Her eyes gradually turned red, and tears fell, hitting the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nina was going crazy. How could Sean throw away the only photo her mother left her!\u00a0<\/p>\n
He knew perfectly well how important her mother was to her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere did you throw it?\u201d Her voice was full of despair and disappointment, completely lifeless.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know. Maybe it\u2019s already been hauled away.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As soon as Sean finished speaking, Nina bolted out, but he grabbed her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His eyes were full of disapproval as he frowned at the pale woman. \u201cAre you crazy? It\u2019s pouring outside!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The man\u2019s grip was strong, leaving a white mark on Nina\u2019s arm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But right then, Nina felt like a piece of her heart was missing, her mind a complete blank.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If she couldn\u2019t find her mother\u2019s photo, she couldn\u2019t imagine what would become of her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was pouring rain outside. Nina ran into the downpour, drenched by the cold water.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She found the nearest trash can, knocked it over, and knelt on the ground to start digging through it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The trash can smelled awful, but Nina couldn\u2019t seem to smell anything. She just mechanically searched for that photo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thunder cracked right by Nina\u2019s ear, and she curled up in fear.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rainwater poured down her collar and back, but she couldn\u2019t feel the cold, only a dull, hollow ache in her chest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nothing!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nina ran to another trash can to search. Her fingertips were already wrinkled from the water, and the rain blurred her vision. She could no longer tell if it was rain or tears.\u00a0<\/p>\n
0.0%\u00a0<\/p>\n
22:54\u00a0<\/p>\n
288 Vouchers\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter\u00a0<\/p>\n
A gentle woman seemed to appear before her, reaching out a hand. \u201cMy sweet Nina.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nina knelt on the ground, staring blankly at the woman before her, her eyes overflowing with sorrow. \u201cMom! I miss you so much!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She rushed forward to hug the woman, but in the next moment, the woman vanished.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nina collapsed to the ground, realizing it had all been a hallucination.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She murmured to her reflection in a puddle, her nails scraping faint, bloody lines on the concrete. \u201cMom, I\u2019m begging you, don\u2019t take away the only thing you left me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just as she spoke, Nina\u2019s left hand touched something hard. She paused, then pulled it out.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was the photo frame.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rain had already seeped into the frame, ruining the already faded photo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Nina still felt the joy of finding what was lost. She clutched the frame and cried loudly in the rain, her voice hoarse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sean sat in his car, the wipers constantly clearing the rain from the windshield. He watched Nina kneeling in the rain not far away, his face expressionless.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But his hands on the steering wheel were trembling. He closed his eyes, and images of Nina\u2019s past suicide attempts seemed to flash in his mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When he opened his eyes again, Nina had already collapsed in the rain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sean threw open the car door and rushed into the downpour.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When he saw the ruined photo frame clutched in Nina\u2019s arms, his pupils couldn\u2019t help but tremble, and it felt like something was stuck in his throat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He scooped Nina up from the ground, her eyelashes beaded with water droplets, and when Sean tried to wipe the rain from her face, he flinched, startled by her burning temperature.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNina, I\u2019ll take you to the hospital.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
52.2 %\u00a0<\/p>\n
22:54\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland\u2019s breathtaking cold.<\/p>\n
Loomwood Galleries Framed Pilgrim Murals by Iris Vaughn 7 Those words hit Nina\u2019s heart like a bomb.\u00a0 She froze, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-girl-in-the-shadows-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}