Tristan\u00a0<\/p>\n
So I nodded stiffly and let him do his examination.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every test came back clean.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every injury healed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every wound closed like the bike crash had never happened, like I hadn\u2019t spent hours unconscious while my body tried and failed to repair itself fast\u00a0<\/p>\n
enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRemarkable,\u201d Dr. Ben murmured as he checked the place where I knew my skull had been fractured. \u201cCompletely healed, not even any swelling or bruising, I\u2019ve never seen anything like this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I can leave,\u201d I said, swinging my legs over the side of the bed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018You can,\u201d Dr. Ben agreed. \u201cBut you\u2019ll need to use a wheelchair when we take you back through the hospital, the staff there will expect it given how you arrived and we don\u2019t want to raise any questions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
I hated the idea of being wheeled around like an invalid when I felt fine, better than fine actually, when every cell in my body was practically vibrating\u00a0<\/p>\n
with health and strength.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But I understood the need for discretion so I nodded.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever gets us out of here faster,\u201d I said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A nurse brought in a wheelchair and I transferred into it, fighting every instinct that told me to just stand up and walk out on my own two feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The ride to Orion\u2019s place was tense and silent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I sat in the back of Derek\u2019s car with Athena beside me and every time I looked at her I felt that anger surge again, mixing with something softer and more terrifying, something that felt too much like the fear I\u2019d seen in her eyes when she was crying over me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She kept glancing at me then looking away, her fingers twisting together in her lap in that nervous gesture she had, and I wanted to reach out and take her hand, wanted to pull her close and never let go.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But I couldn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not when I was still so angry and scared and confused about what she\u2019d done, about what it meant, about what the consequences might be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orion\u2019s house was dark when we pulled up and I felt a flash of relief that the kids weren\u2019t home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thank god for that at least.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whatever was about to happen here didn\u2019t need an audience of curious children asking questions we couldn\u2019t answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 340\u00a0<\/p>\n
At least now I could get as angry as I wanted without worrying about scaring them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I knew what I must look like, knew my face was probably hard and closed off and radiating the fury I was barely keeping contained, but I couldn\u2019t help\u00a0<\/p>\n
Couldn\u2019t pretend everything was fine when it so clearly wasn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orion led us into the living room and I transferred from the wheelchair to the couch, my body moving easily despite everything it had been through, despite the fact that just hours ago I\u2019d been broken and bleeding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Everyone settled into seats around me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Athena on the other end of the couch, keeping distance between us that felt both necessary and wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orion in the armchair looking exhausted and guilty.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Derek and Sarah on the loveseat watching everything with careful eyes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They were all looking at me like they were waiting for something, like they knew the explosion was coming and were bracing for impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I took a breath and tried to organize my thoughts, tried to figure out how to explain what I was feeling when I could barely understand it myself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHow could you let her do that?\u201d I asked Orion, my voice coming out low and dangerous.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The words hung in the air between us, sharp and accusing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTristan\u2026\u201d Athena started but I held up a hand without looking at her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNot you,\u201d I said. \u201cHim.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Orion met my eyes steadily, not flinching from the anger he must have seen there. \u201cShe insisted.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe insisted, I repeated, the words tasting bitter on my tongue. \u201cAnd you just went along with it, you just let your pregnant sister use powers we don\u2019t understand on me when it could have hurt her or the babies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories Drifted Into Soft Silence by Kyx Frost 340 Tristan\u00a0 So I nodded stiffly and let him do his examination.\u00a0 […]<\/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":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-second-gear-of-love-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26497","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=26497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}