52. Chapter Fifty-Two
Chapter Fifty-Two
Wrenley
One week later .
The mansion has never been this quiet. Not after a mission. Not after death. Not even after the House of Silk burned and we carried those girls through the smoke. This silence is different. Heavier. Like it’s soaked into the floorboards.
A week. Seven days. One hundred and sixty-eight hours since the explosion. Since the room collapsed. Since the smoke cleared. Since we didn’t find a body.
Max keeps repeating that part like it’s meant to help. “No body, Sparrow. No body.”
But sometimes grief is loud even when logic whispers. Torque hasn’t spoken to anyone in three days except to snarl orders. Riot’s hands are shaking. Wrecker sits with Daisy at all hours, refusing to leave her alone. Hugo sleeps under the oak tree and barely eats.
And me, I haven’t slept more than an hour at a time. I keep waking up reaching for someone who isn’t there. Someone who should be in this bed, in this house, in this life.
It’s dusk when Max finds me standing barefoot in the garden, staring at the oak tree.
“Sparrow,” he says softly.
I don’t turn. I don’t need to. “I’m ready,” I whisper. He nods once. And together, we walk toward the memorial.
They did what they could. A wooden slab across two stones, temporary, until Riot finishes carving the real marker.
Liam’s jacket is draped over the top, sleeves fluttering in the breeze.
His dog tags loop around a branch overheard.
A small metal Serpent figurine set at the base.
Hugo lays beneath it, chin on his paws, refusing to move even when the others tried.
The Serpents stand in a wide circle. Max beside me.
Margot gripping Elias’s hand. Riot staring at the ground.
Wrecker and Daisy pressed shoulder-to-shoulder.
Torque in the back, arms crossed so tight the tendons stand out in his neck.
No one talks. No one breathes loudly. It feels like if we make too much noise, the world will break with us.
I kneel in the grass, fingers trembling as they brush the worn sleeve of Liam’s jacket. My voice is barely a breath.
“Hi.”
The Serpents bow their heads. The wind shifts. Hugo lifts his chin from the earth, watching me with eyes that understand too much. My throat tightens.
“We weren’t ready for this,” I whisper. “I wasn’t ready.”
My palm presses against the ground beneath the oak tree. Warm on the surface. Cold underneath.
“I don’t know what will happen next. I don’t know how we’re supposed to breathe without you.”
Max kneels behind me then, one arm steadying my back, anchoring me, grounding me even as his own breath shudders. And that’s when the words push their way out of me.
“I found out two days ago,” I whisper. “Doc confirmed it last night.”
A sharp inhale ripples through the circle. My vision blurs.
“Liam…” My voice breaks. “You’re going to be a father.”
Everything goes silent. I feel every head snap up. Feeling the grief shift, deepen, sharpen. But I’m not done.
“Max,” I say, turning my face just enough to meet his eyes through tears. “Max and you… you’re both going to be fathers.”
Max’s breath collapses. His hand tightens on my shoulder, fingers trembling.
His forehead presses to the back of my head as if he’s trying not to fall apart in front of everyone.
Torque turns away violently, like he physically cannot bear it.
Margot covers her mouth, shoulders shaking.
Riot takes several steps back, chest heaving.
Wrecker pulls Daisy close as she starts crying without knowing why.
My tears fall freely now. “We don’t know how to do this without you,” I whisper to the memorial. “We’re supposed to raise this baby together. All three of us. You’re supposed to be here. You’re supposed to know.”
My voice cracks in half. “You were supposed to stay.”
Max breaks then, I feel it in the way his arms wrap around me, in the sound he swallows back, in the breath that catches like his ribs hurt.
I lean into him, letting him hold me as I continue, barely audible. “I love you. Both of you. And I don’t believe you’re gone. Not really. But if you can hear me… if you’re out there…”
My hand presses to my stomach. “I’m going to find you. And you’re coming home to us.”
A wind sweeps through the oak branches, stirring the leaves like a whisper.
Hugo lifts his head suddenly, eyes fixed on the tree line.
Watching. Listening. Alert. Like he senses something none of us can see.
Max squeezes me closer. Torque wipes his face aggressively, refusing to let anyone see.
Riot stares at the jacket like it might breathe. Margot leans into Elias.
I stand, hands still trembling, heart breaking but burning at the edges. “Come home,” I whisper to the wind, the jacket, the earth. “Please.”