The Rose He Killed novel Chapter 194

Chapter 174: Diana’s Breakdown2

Diana POV

“I needed somewhere nobody knew.”

She didn’t push on, “Where are you?”

“Bella” I sat up straighter. “You don’t need to it’s quite late, Grace will need”

“Caleb has Grace, And we have Nadia.”

I had forgotten about Nadia. The nanny they had finally settled on after what Caleb had once described to me simply as a long process which I knew, from Bella, was the understatement of the decade. I knew about Singapore. I knew about the cameras and the flight home and Tom crying himself into a fever, and I knew that Bella’s caution about who she left her children with was not a personality quirk but something she had earned the hard way. Caleb had understood that. He hadn’t tried to talk her out of it – he’d sat down with her and made a list and found someone together. Nadia had been with them for a week now, which by any measure meant she had passed every test worth passing.

My thoughts were interrupted by Bella. “what’s the name of the hotel Diana?”

“I’m fine. I just needed to”

“You called me and told me you weren’t sure if you were safe.” Her voice was steady but there was something underneath it. “You don’t have to be fine. Tell me the name of the hotel.”

I told her.

“Don’t put the phone down,” she said.

“Bella, you really don’t have to”

But she had already handed the phone to someone. I heard her say Caleb’s name, low and quick, two sentences, and then she was back. “Fifteen minutes,” she said. “Stay on with me.”

“This is unnecessary”

“Diana.”

I stopped.

“Let me come,” she said, and it wasn’t a command anymore.

“Okay,” I said.

“Okay,” she said back. “Talk to me. Tell me something.”

“Like what?”

“Anything, I don’t care. Just keep talking until I get there.”

I looked at the ceiling of the hotel room and said, “I’ve been thinking about Mum.”

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<Chapter 174-thena’s Breakdown2

“Tell me about her,”

Claim

When she knocked,+ almost didn’t get up: I sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the door and felt the distance between where I was and the simple act of crossing the room to open it.

Then I heard her voice through the door “Diana. I’m here.”

That was what got me up. I opened the door and she looked at me quickly and completely, taking in everything without making it obvious. She didn’t say I looked terrible or that she’d rushed there-none of the things people say when they don’t know how to handle a crisis.

She walked in and was silent for a moment. She looked at the table, then at me, taking in the full picture: the document face down on the desk, the untouched glass of water, and the prescription bottle I had spent an hour staring at.

“How many?” she asked.

“I didn’t,” I said.

“I know,” she replied. “How many were you thinking about?”

I looked at her. “I don’t know,” I said, which was the truth. “I was just looking at it. I couldn’t decide if I was the kind of person who would or wouldn’t.”

“In the moment you had to choose, you chose to call me,” she said. “That’s who you really are.”

She walked to the table and put the bottle in her bag with calm practicality, removing the obstacle without judgment. Then she sat on the edge of the bed, close enough that I could feel her warmth.

“The documents,” I said. “There are two of them. You need to know about both.”

“I understand,” she said. “We’ll get to them but not yet.”

‘Bella”

‘Diana.” Her hand covered mine. “You called me. Not about the documents, you called me because you needed someone, the document issues can wait for a few minutes.”

I looked at her hand over mine and felt the unfamiliar weight of being someone’s priority.

‘I didn’t know who else to call,” I said again, needing her to hear it in person.

“I know,” she replied. “I’m glad you did. I’ve got you”,

I hadn’t been “got” by many people, and I usually didn’t allow it, but I was too tired to fight alone.

“I thought I could handle him being gone,” I whispered, looking at my shaking hands. “I thought death meant it was over.”

“It’s never just over with men like him,” Bella said softly. “They leave shadows. But you don’t have to sit in the dark alone anymore.”

“Caleb is going to hate this,” I said, a fresh wave of guilt hitting me. “He’s going to look at that document

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