Chapter 14
908 Words
The soft beeping of the machines blended with the sterile scent of antiseptic as Stephanie stirred. Her eyelids fluttered open, and a dim light spilled through the window blinds, casting thin slits across the white hospital sheets. Her head throbbed, and a dull ache lingered in her shoulder, but she was alive. That much, at least, she could be grateful for.
Her fingers curled around the blanket, eyes shifting toward the door as if expecting someone to burst in. But the room was quiet too quiet.
The fall.
The stairs.
The screaming.
Her mind fogged the details, but fragments returned like jagged pieces of glass none fitting neatly, none offering peace.
A knock.
Then, the door creaked open.
Rachel.
Stephanie’s heart skipped.
“Oh… you’re awake,” Rachel said softly, stepping into the room like a shadow. Her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “I was worried.”
Stephanie blinked, her mouth dry. “Where’s Ryder?”
Rachel chuckled and walked closer. “He’s busy with Alpha duties. You know how it is. But you really should be careful. Falling down those stairs like that? People might start thinking you're… clumsy.”
The fake concern in her voice didn’t fool Stephanie. Not this time. Not after what she’d seen in Rachel’s eyes the night of the fall panic, not fear. Panic that she’d been caught.
“I—I don’t remember what happened,” Stephanie murmured, watching Rachel’s every movement.
Rachel sat on the edge of the bed, brushing imaginary dust off the blanket. “Sometimes… forgetting is a blessing. Trust me. Some truths are too painful to remember.”
The words sent a chill through Stephanie’s spine.
Rachel leaned closer. “But you’ll be fine, Stephanie. Ryder will always care for you as a pack member, of course. Let’s not get confused about where we all stand.”
Stephanie didn’t reply. She didn’t need to. She knew what Rachel was doing. It was a threat wrapped in a smile.
Across the packhouse, Ryder stood in front of Dr. Lily, arms folded.
“You said she fell. Alone. But that doesn’t make sense. Stephanie doesn’t just slip,” Ryder’s voice was low but dangerous.
Dr. Lily shifted, her eyes flicking toward her clipboard. “There was no sign of struggle, Alpha. But the bruising pattern on her arm…” she paused, then looked up, “could suggest she was grabbed. Pulled.”
Ryder’s jaw clenched. “Why didn’t you say that earlier?”
“I wasn’t sure. And it’s not my place to speculate without proof.”
“Well, now I’m asking for your speculation. And your honesty.”
Lily sighed. “Then yes. It looked suspicious. Someone didn’t want her reaching wherever she was headed.”
Ryder stormed out without another word.
He didn’t need more signs. His gut screamed what his mind refused to accept: someone tried to hurt Stephanie. And that someone was still close.
That night, Stephanie lay in bed pretending to be asleep when the nurse did her final check. She waited until the footsteps faded down the hall, then slowly pulled the blanket aside.
The pain in her shoulder was sharp, but it was manageable. She moved like a ghost, tiptoeing through the quiet corridor until she reached the room Rachel was using while staying in the infirmary wing.
The door was slightly ajar.
She hesitated, then pushed it open, her breath catching in her throat.
Rachel’s room was neat, too neat. But on the dresser, something glinted under the moonlight.
Stephanie stepped forward and picked it up.
Her necklace.
Or… part of it. The chain was broken, but the pendant an engraved moonstone Ryder had given her long ago—was unmistakable.
Her hands trembled.
A flash.
His voice, calling her name.
Another flash.
His lips on hers. A promise whispered under a tree.
Then
The stairs. Rachel’s hand. A push.
Stephanie stumbled back, clutching the pendant to her chest. Her breathing turned shallow as pieces of memory snapped together like puzzle pieces.
She remembered.
Not everything.
But enough.
She had loved him.
He had loved her.
And someone had tried to take that from her.
Ryder sat in the security room, eyes glued to the grainy footage from the night of the fall.
He paused the screen. Rewound. There it was again Stephanie climbing the stairs, then a shadow appearing behind her. The camera didn’t show the full scene, but he saw the sudden jolt, her body falling, and a figure stepping back.
He leaned in.
The figure didn’t face the camera.
But the contour… it was unmistakable.
Rachel.
Rage boiled in his veins.
How could he have been so blind?
Stephanie didn’t return to her room that night. She found a quiet chair in the corner of the ward and sat, clutching the broken pendant.
The truth was coming back to her.
Slowly. Painfully.
But she wouldn’t run from it this time.
Rachel had betrayed her.
And Ryder… Ryder had once been hers.
But why had he chosen Rachel?
Why had he let her go?
More questions spiraled in her head, but one thing was clear, she wasn’t the weak girl everyone thought she was.
Not anymore.
And as the sun began to rise outside the window, painting the sky in soft golds and pinks, Stephanie stood and whispered to herself:
“They tried to break me. But I’m still here.”
And she wasn’t leaving without the truth.
- Writer
