Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 180

Chapter 180

Once the ambulance was ready, Keith linked Ethan to tell him. By then Meadow had cried herself into exhausted sleep. Ethan gently eased away from her and left her sleeping on the bed. He went to shower quietly, moving with a carefulness he did not usually bother with. He had decided from the beginning that he wanted the operation done while she was asleep. Not because he wanted to deceive her cruelly, but because he wanted to spare her the hours of waiting and terror that would come if she watched him leave. He did not want her standing outside that ambulance with dread eating her alive. He did not want her panicking while strangers cut

into him. It would be easier, he told himself, if she woke in the morning and everything was already done.

He wanted to spare her that anxiety. He wanted to spare her the trauma of watching. He knew it was a crazy kind of tenderness

Secretive. Risky. But he could not help wanting to protect her that way.

So after showering, he slipped out quietly. Elaine was sent into the room to stay with Meadow. The arrangement was simple. If Meadow woke and realised Ethan was gone, Elaine would be there to keep her in the room and stop her from wandering out in fear or curiosity. It sounded mad when laid out plainly, but it was necessary. Ethan wanted to be on the road to recovery as soon as

possible, and he believed this was the cleanest way to do it.

Even so, he was worried too. He simply did not let it show. As he moved toward the ambulance, he prayed that the goddess would spare his life. Spare his body. Spare his future. He prayed that he would get better. That all of this would not end in another cruel blow. He replaced his worries deliberately with happy thoughts because it was the only way to keep himself steady. Thoughts of Meadow smiling. Thoughts of carrying her. Thoughts of walking through the house on his own feet. Thoughts of the children they might one day have. Thoughts of a life no longer lived half from a chair and half from memory.

He was giving himself a gift, yes. But not only himself. He was giving it to his wife. To his children yet unborn. To the version of their future that had started to bloom in his mind the moment Meadow told him she wanted him. He had already imagined that entire life with her. Too many nights. Too many aching moments. And now the thought of actually seeing himself walk and play with her and their pups one day made something fierce settle into him.

By the time they got him into the ambulance, Ethan was determined. They laid him on the spine operation table they had brought. They had purchased a hospital bed too. That bed would go into his bedroom so once the operation was over they could transfer him there without unnecessary movement. The operation table stayed in the ambulance where the actual procedure would happen.

When the door closed, the sound of it felt final. Dr James had only one nurse inside with him to assist. He wanted the operation

quick. Clean. Focused. The fewer bodies in that enclosed space, the better.

The nurse disinfected the air again and started an IV line for Ethan. They prepared him with his body facing down. Dr James covered most of his back and exposed only the exact part he needed. The area was disinfected carefully. Then the anaesthetic was

administered slowly until Ethan drifted into deep sleep.

Only then did Dr James begin.

He checked the scanned image they had pinned inside the ambulance so he could map the area precisely. He used callipers to measure where the cut needed to be. Then he took the scalpel and cut through with controlled speed. The retractors held the flesh apart. The nurse watched him work with widening eyes. He moved as though he already knew exactly where the problem lived.

There was almost no wasted movement in him.

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Chapter 180

He felt through the area. Then used the rongeurs and forceps. He removed some material first. Three black muscle masses came out.

That made the nurse freeze slightly. Dr James cut into one to make sure. Inside it, the silver shards were there. They had been in

Ethan’s body for so long that muscle had grown around them, bound them, trapped them against the bone. The body had tried to

protect itself the only way it could. The muscle mass was Ethan’s own flesh fighting the poison, slowing it down enough to keep

him alive while also imprisoning him further.

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Underwater: The Silent Luna