Chapter 21: The Naked Face
Chapter 21: The Naked Face
The heavy plastic helmet slipped from David’s trembling hands and clattered onto the hardwood floor.
He knelt there, completely exposed, his chest heaving, his face slick with sweat and tears.
He squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for the inevitable recoil, the terrified scream that would tell him he had ruined everything.
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But the room remained utterly silent.
Slowly, David opened his eyes. Chloe wasn't shaking. She wasn't shrinking away. She looked at his rough, exhausted face, at the dark circles under his eyes carved by weeks of suffocating agony. She leaned forward and wrapped her fragile, bruised arms around his neck, burying her face in his sweat-drenched collar. The ghost that had haunted his own house was dead. He was a father again.
