The silence in the V.I.P. corridor of Riverbend General Hospital was heavy, a suffocating shroud that smelled of antiseptic and old regrets. Derek Faulkner didn't get angry. He didn't roar, and he didn't lash out at the woman standing before him. He had no right. No matter what choices Serena Ashford had made, no matter how she had survived the last eight years, he was the one who had left the vacuum in her life. He was the one who had allowed the Inferno to swallow his family while he was off winning glory for the Empire.
Right now, he didn't care about the wine-stained clothes or the scent of the Blue Horizon Club that clung to her like a curse. He only wanted one thing: to reclaim his role as a father, to take the burden of Lemon's life onto his own shoulders, and to beg for the chance
