From Substitute To Queen novel Chapter 183

Chapter 183

He disappeared into his study, leaving me standing alone in the vast foyer.

I was twelve years old, lying in bed with a high fever. Katherine was traveling. The servants suggested calling Marcus, but he only sent a

doctor to check on me.

The servants cared for me instead. I dreamed of Marcus coming to my room, checking my temperature, telling me everything would be okay. But when morning came, I was still alone.

The memories cut through me like shards of glass. Standing there watching this stranger love his child unconditionally, I felt the full weight of what I’d been denied.

This is what fathers are supposed to do. This is what love looks like.

And I never had it. Not once.

The rain continued falling outside, but I couldn’t move. My throat closed up. Every breath was a struggle.

Am I really so fundamentally flawed that my own father couldn’t love me?

What’s wrong with me?

I pressed my back against the cold hospital wall, fighting to keep myself from falling apart in this public place.

Sable’s POV

I stared at the scattered files across my desk, but the words blurred together. My mind kept circling back to Caelan’s interrupted

conversation.

He wanted to tell me about “everything between us”…

The pen slipped from my fingers. I pressed my palms against my eyes, trying to push away the memory of his expression-so serious, so determined to finally say whatever he’d been holding back.

What was he going to tell me?

I reached for another patient file, desperate for something to occupy my thoughts. The afternoon had crawled by since our interrupted moment, each hour stretching endlessly as I threw myself into work. But even the most complex medical cases couldn’t silence the questions echoing in my head.

A sound shattered the quiet-loud, heavy, final.

BANG

The noise came from outside, reverberating through the building like thunder. I frose, my hand suspended over the keyboard.

What was that?

Shouting erupted in the hallway. Footsteps pounded past my door, urgent and chaotic. I heard someone scream.

“Oh my God!”

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12:06 Fri, 22 Aug

Chapter 183

“Call security!”

“Someone call 911!*

My heart slammed against my ribs. I abandoned my chair and rushed to the door, yanking it open to find the corridor filled with medical staff running toward the windows.

I grabbed the arm of a passing nurse. “Wait! What happened?”

She spun around, her face white with shock. “Doctor, someone jumped! From the seventh floor!”

The words hit me like ice water. “What? Who?”

“Marcus Blackwood!” She was breathing hard, panic making her voice shrill. “That patient… he just-*

“Marcus?” The name barely escaped my throat.

Caelan’s father?

So that’s why Caelan was here today…

They were together, and now-

“Are you sure it was him?”

“I saw the security confirm it…” The nurse’s voice cracked. “Doctor, you look pale. Are you okay?”

Marcus jumped from the seventh floor.

That means Caelan was visiting his father.

But where is Caelan now?

Does he know what happened?

Oh God, where is he?

I released the nurse and broke into a run, pushing through the crowd of medical staff gathering in the hallway. The elevator was too slow-1 needed to get outside now.

1 shoved through the stairwell door and took the steps two at a time, my shoes echoing in the concrete space. Seven floors down felt like eternity,

Rain hammered against the hospital entrance as I burst through the doors. The scene outside was controlled chaos-paramedics in yellow rain slickers working around a covered form, police cordoning off the area, curious onlookers huddled under umbrellas.

Water soaked through my scrubs instantly, plastering my hair to my scalp. I scanned the crowd frantically, searching every face for

the one that mattered.

Where is he?

Fragments of conversation drifted through the storm:

“…heard it was one of the Blackwood family…”

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12:06 Fri, 22 Aug PM

Chapter 183

“…suicide, they’re saying…”

“…poor son, I wonder where he is…”

Son.

87%

My blood turned cold. I pushed deeper into the crowd, rain streaming down my face and making it hard to see.

That’s when I spotted him.

Caelan stood alone at the edge of the scene, maybe thirty feet from the main crowd. He faced away from the activity, his back to the chaos and the covered body and the flashing lights.

Rain poured over him like he wasn’t even there. His dark hair was completely soaked, water running in rivulets down his neck. His shirt clung to his shoulders and back, outlining every tense muscle.

But he wasn’t moving. Not at all. He stood perfectly still, as if he’d turned to stone.

I moved toward him carefully, my heart breaking with each step. The rain was so heavy I could barely see, but I could make out the rigid line of his shoulders, the way his hands hung motionless at his sides.

“Caelan?” I called softly.

He didn’t respond.

“Caelan, it’s me…”

Nothing. He might as well have been carved from marble.

I stepped closer, close enough to see the way rainwater dripped from his fingertips. His breathing was so shallow I could barely

detect the rise and fall of his chest.

“Caelan, can you hear me?”

Still no reaction.

He’s in shock.

He’s completely shut down.

Without hesitation, I moved behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist, pressing my cheek against his soaked back.

For a moment, he remained rigid as steel. Then slowly, I felt some of the tension leave his body. His head dropped slightly forward.

He turned around in my arms. When his eyes met mine, they were hollow-completely empty of the fierce intensity I was used to seeing there.

“Sabi…” His voice was barely audible over the rain. How did you…?’

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From Substitute To Queen