The Rose He Killed novel Chapter 204

Chapter 183-Bella’s Breaking Point

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Chapter 183: Bella’s Breaking Point

Bella POV

I had been powerless before.

I knew exactly how it felt-the way it stays in your bones and tells you that nothing you do matters. I felt it on my wedding night when my family told me to disappear, I felt it when I was working odd jobs just to survive and I promised myself back then that I would never feel that way again.

But here it was.

The room was quiet at 4 AM. Reyes’s team spoke in low voicès. Diana was on the phone in the hall. Caleb sat two feet away. That small distance was the only thing keeping me from falling apart.

I watched the second video again.

Tom had his hand flat on the floor. He did that whenever he was thinking hard, like he was trying to steady himself. He was scared but trying not to show it. Seeing a five-year-old try that hard to be brave broke my heart every time.

I had taught him to be brave, but I never wanted him to need it for this.

“Bella.” Maya was suddenly beside me, her voice quiet and steady. It was the tone she used when she was being a doctor. “When was the last time you ate anything besides half a sandwich?”

“I’m fine.”

“I didn’t ask if you were fine. I asked when you ate.”

“Maya”

“Tom needs you to be strong when we find him,” she said, she put a protein bar on the table. “You can keep watching the video while you eat. I’m not asking you to stop.”

I picked it up but couldn’t even taste it.

Maya sat down next to me and stayed there.

“Just say it,” I told her.

“I’m not saying anything.”

“You have that look on your face.”

“I don’t have a look. I’m just sitting here.”

“Maya.” I looked at her. “Whatever you’re thinking, just tell me.”

す

She was quiet for a moment. “I keep thinking about the morning he was born,” she said finally. “We were together for eighteen hours of labor. When he finally arrived, you looked at him and said, ‘Hello, I’ve been waiting for you.’ You spoke like you already knew him.”

I looked at the video on my phone. I saw Tom’s grey eyes and his strong jaw.

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< Chapter 183 Bella’s Breaking Point

“did know him,” I said.

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“Yes. She paused. “And he knows you. In that video, he didn’t say ‘help me’ or ‘I’m scared.’ He said, ‘Come find me.’ He said it because he already knew you would.” She looked at me. “He isn’t just waiting to be saved, Bella. He is waiting for you to show up. There is a difference.

I thought about that for a long time,

“Eat the rest of that bar,” she said. “All of it. I’ll stay right here.”

I finished the bar but she didn’t move. Grace had finally fallen asleep in a small cot in the corner. She looked so soft and peaceful. She had Caleb’s frown even while she slept, as if she were busy solving a problem. I watched her breathe for a moment to calm myself down.

I had to protect both of my children. I had to get them through this.

The memories came back in broken pieces. I remembered the rain the night I left my family. I remembered sitting on a bus with no plan, my hand on my stomach, telling the baby-who wasn’t even Tom yet-that we would be okay.

I didn’t know if it was true back then. I just said it because someone had to.

I said it again now, silently, to the boy on the screen. We are coming, you are going to be fine.

Caleb appeared beside me without a sound. He had been moving like that for hours-quiet and close, just being there.

“You were thinking about something,” he said.

“The night I left,” I said. “The rain and the bus. I keep thinking about how I told him we would be okay. Back then, I didn’t actually know if it was true.”

“Was it true?”

I looked at him. “Yes.”

“Then it’s true now,” he said.

“You can’t know that.”

“No,” he said. “But you said it back then without knowing, and you were right. You are better at this than you think.”

We stayed in silence, looking at our son on the screen. Then Lena’s voice rang out across the room.

“We’ve narrowed the four sites down to two,” Lena said and I was on my feet before she even finished.

She put two satellite photos on the table. Both were old warehouses, one had a car seen nearby. The other had a heat signature, which meant people were inside.

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