The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 159

"You have work in the morning, go get some sleep," his father murmured quietly. "I'll stay and keep an eye on her."

Garrison nodded and turned toward the hallway.

Just as he reached the threshold, a frail, trembling voice called out from behind him.

"Garrison..."

Garrison's footsteps hitched.

The room plunged into dead silence. Both Rosemary and his father turned to look at him.

"Could you... please not leave?" Quinn's voice sounded like it was being painfully torn from her throat, laced with a sob she was desperately fighting to suppress.

Rosemary's eyes darted frantically between her son and Quinn, opening her mouth to interject, but his father placed a firm, silencing hand over hers.

Garrison didn't look back.

After a long beat of silence, he spoke.

"Quinn, there are things I have to do."

He pushed the door open and walked out.

The door clicked softly shut behind him.

In the bed, Quinn squeezed her eyes shut as fresh tears slipped down her temples, soaking into the pillowcase. Rosemary let out a long, dramatic sigh, picking up the damp cloth to tenderly wipe her face.

"This poor girl," she muttered softly. "She just feels things too deeply."

His father stood by the window, staring out into the oppressive darkness of the night, completely silent.

The courtyard was still.

Moonlight sliced through the canopy of the trees, casting a silver frost over the stone pathways. Garrison stood in the center of the glow, perfectly motionless, just staring into the pale light.

Soft, padding footsteps approached from behind.

"Dad."

Archie ran up to him. He was wearing baby-blue pajamas, completely barefoot, with wild bedhead. The moonlight caught his small frame, casting an impossibly long shadow across the ground.

"What are you doing out here?" Garrison quickly closed the distance and dropped to a crouch. "The stones are freezing, why aren't you wearing your slippers?"

Archie ignored the question. He just stared up at his father, his eyes gleaming in the moonlight.

"Dad, where are you going?"

Garrison's hands stalled.

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