Chapter 5 - The Midnight Vigil
The penthouse grew quiet as midnight approached. The city below hummed with a restless, neon-soaked energy, but inside the glass walls, the chaos had finally subsided.
Adrian had managed to orchestrate a makeshift bedtime routine that felt more like a military extraction. With Marcus’s frantic, bewildered help — and a hastily summoned luxury shopping delivery service that flooded the apartment with children's pajamas, beds, and stuffed animals — the triplets had finally settled into three newly assembled rooms down the hall from Adrian's master suite.
Now, the apartment was dead silent.
Adrian sat at his dark walnut desk in his private study, a single desk lamp casting a harsh yellow glow over his features. On his laptop screen, medical journals and cardiology reports scrolled past in a blur. He was searching for anything — a clinical trial, a cutting-edge surgical technique, an experimental valve replacement — that could save Sienna.
His eyes burned with exhaustion, but sleep was a luxury he couldn't afford. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw her pale face on that hospital pillow, and the memory of her voice whispering, My heart is tired.
The door to his study creaked open.
Adrian looked up, expecting Marcus with more bad news. Instead, standing in the doorway was Cora. She was wearing oversized pink pajamas that swallowed her small frame, and she was dragging her favorite stuffed rabbit by its ear. Her dark hair was a bit messy from sleep.
"Cora?" Adrian asked, his voice softening instantly as he pushed back his chair and stood up. " কি случилось? What's wrong? Can't sleep?"
Cora shook her head, walking slowly into the room. She didn't look scared; she looked profoundly lost. She stopped right in front of him, looking up with those familiar, piercing eyes.
"I had a bad dream," she whispered.
Adrian knelt down, placing his large hands gently on her small shoulders. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"I dreamed the room went all white," Cora said, her voice trembling just a fraction. "And Mama wasn't there anymore. And Clara and Chloe and I were floating in the dark, and nobody was holding our hands."
Adrian’s breath caught. He pulled the little girl into his arms, wrapping her tightly against his chest. She felt so fragile, like a bird made of glass. He buried his face in her dark hair, fighting back a wave of fierce, blinding emotion.
"Listen to me, Cora," Adrian whispered fiercely against her ear, his voice thick with unshed tears. "That's only a bad dream. It's never going to happen. I am here. Your sisters are here. And your mom is fighting as hard as she can."
Cora buried her face in the crook of his neck, her small arms wrapping around his broad shoulders with a surprising strength. "Are you going to disappear like the man in the stories?" she asked softly. "The dragon who flies away and leaves the castle empty?"
Adrian pulled back just enough to look her dead in the eye, his gaze steady and unyielding.
"Never," he promised, his voice ringing with absolute finality. "I spent seven years being a fool, Cora. I'm not going to spend another second away from you girls. I swear to you, I'm right here."
Cora nodded slowly, the tension leaving her small body. She reached into her pajama pocket and pulled out her black-bound notebook, holding it out to him.
"You can read it," she whispered. "It has all our drawings. And the questions I wanted to ask you."
May you like
Adrian took the notebook with trembling fingers. He opened it to a fresh page, where a new drawing had been added. It wasn't just him and Sienna and the three girls anymore. In the center of the drawing, the tall man in the black suit was holding hands with all three little girls, and right above them, a bright, glowing sun was smiling down.
Adrian stared at the crude crayon drawing, and for the first time in seven years, the cold, armored walls of his heart completely shattered.
