Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 56
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{Alice’s Private Residence – Evening}
Maeve stumbled through the front door, tears streaming freely, and barely made it past the entryway before Alice appeared, alarm flashing across her face at the sight of her daughter’s state.
“Maeve? What happened?”
Maeve didn’t answer. She simply cried harder, pushing past her mother toward one of the guest rooms, collapsing onto the bed the moment she reached it.
Alice followed immediately, sitting beside her, pulling her into a tight embrace, stroking her hair the way she had when Maeve was small.
“Shh. Shh, baby, talk to me. What’s wrong?”
“My head,” Maeve finally managed between sobs. “It feels like it’s on fire, Mom. It’s been happening for days now. And Tyler— there was an explosion, his house, I don’t know if he’s—”
“Okay,” Alice said firmly, cutting through the panic with practiced calm. “Okay. We’ll get your head checked immediately. Go to the hospital tonight.”
Maeve nodded, wiping at her face, though fresh tears kept falling regardless.
Then, in the middle of her crying, an old question surfaced, one she’d been asking for years without ever receiving a real answer.
“Mom,” she said quietly. “What’s my father’s name? You’ve never told me. Not really.”
Alice’s expression flickered — hesitation, calculation, something guarded moving behind her eyes before she finally, carefully answered.
“Chester Ben,” she said slowly. “People call him C. For Chester.”
Maeve stared at her, something settling into place after years of silence. “Why did you never tell me before?”
“It wasn’t important before,” Alice said smoothly, standing and smoothing down her dress. “Go get checked out, darling. We can talk more about this later.”
Maeve wiped her eyes again, fresh tears immediately replacing the old ones, and pushed herself up off the bed, preparing to head to the hospital, the name Chester Ben echoing strangely in her mind the whole way out.
{Creston State Hospital – Evening}
Hazel burst through the hospital doors, breathless, finding her family gathered outside Abigail’s ward.
“Is she okay? What’s happening?” Hazel demanded, eyes still wide from everything she’d just witnessed on that livestream.
Diana pulled her into a quick, tight hug. “She’s stable, but she hasn’t woken up yet. Her chances have dropped a bit — the doctor said it’s down to around forty-nine percent right now.”
Hazel’s face crumpled. “Forty-nine percent?”
“They’re doing everything they can,” Arthur said grimly.
The doctor reappeared moments later, addressing the group with careful, measured words. “Her body is stable, but her mind seems reluctant to surface. Sometimes, in cases like this, recovery accelerates significantly if the patient hears a particular voice — someone they’re emotionally anchored to. It’s not guaranteed, but it’s worth trying.”
Arthur nodded slowly, jaw tight. “I’ll deal with the Sadie and Emilia situation once my daughter is well. Not before.”
Ivory, standing slightly apart from the group, finally spoke up, voice quiet but firm. “There’s something you all should know. Abigail and Tyler— they got back together. Fully. Before any of this happened.”
Diana’s hand flew to her mouth. Arthur’s jaw tightened further, though he said nothing, absorbing the information in heavy silence.
Another Section of the Hospital – Same Time
Curtis sat in a small examination room, sleeve rolled up, waiting for his injection, the dull ache in his skull persisting despite the earlier medications he’d taken at home.
Through the glass partition, he spotted Maeve walking down the hallway toward the same section, clearly heading for a doctor’s consultation.
His stomach lurched. She couldn’t see him here — not now, not with everything still so fragile between them.
He slipped quickly through a side door just as she approached, catching the eye of the doctor on duty and giving him a subtle, meaningful wink before disappearing around the corner.
The doctor understood immediately, adjusting his expression into practiced neutrality just as Maeve reached the desk.
“I need to be seen,” Maeve said, voice still shaky. “I’ve been having headaches, rashes, weakness, sore throat — it’s been going on for days now.”
The doctor nodded, ushering her into an examination room, running a quick series of tests that came back within minutes.
He handed her the results with a reassuring smile. “It’s mostly stress-related, along with a minor skin irritation. Nothing serious. I’d recommend more rest, less strain, and I’ll prescribe something to help with the symptoms.”
Maeve nodded numbly, though she’s still a little bit not convinced that all that’s been happening to hwr is just stress, accepting the prescription slip, relief and exhaustion warring across her face as she left the room, completely unaware of how narrowly she’d just missed running into the man responsible for at least some of her recent misery.
—
{Este’s Restaurant – Evening}
The restaurant buzzed with its usual steady stream of customers, though Celeste moved with considerably less frantic energy than the days before, thanks to the new part-time helper she’d finally hired.
Luis walked in a few minutes later, backpack still slung over one shoulder, his expression troubled in a way that immediately caught Celeste’s attention.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, wiping her hands on her apron and crossing to him.
“There’s been an explosion,” Luis said, pulling out his phone to show her the headline. “The Rodriguez mansion. Ivory’s sister’s husband’s place. Hazel’s aunt, or— I don’t know how it all connects exactly, but it’s bad, Mama.”
Celeste’s face paled as she skimmed the article.
“I’ve been trying to call Hazel,” Luis admitted, voice tight with worry. “She’s not picking up.”
“Give her time,” Celeste said gently, though concern lined her own features now too. “She’s probably at the hospital with her family. She’ll call you back when she can.”
Luis nodded, though he kept glancing at his phone every few minutes anyway, willing it to buzz with her name on the screen.
—
{Beauty and Gemma’s Residence – Same Evening}
Beauty practically floated through her apartment, phone clutched to her chest, an enormous, unrestrained smile plastered across her face.
He viewed it, she thought giddily, replaying the notification over and over in her mind. He finally viewed my photos.
She wandered into the kitchen for a snack, humming softly to herself, and found Gemma already there, chopping vegetables at the counter.
The smile dropped instantly.
Beauty hissed under her breath and turned right back around, disappearing back toward her room without a word, leaving Gemma staring after her, bewildered, knife still in hand.
“Whatever,” Gemma muttered, going back to her chopping.
—
{Night}
“Drive me to the mansion,” Ivory said quietly, once they’d finally left the hospital, exhaustion evident in every line of her body. “I need to grab some things. My parents want some things brought back too.”
Duane nodded and pulled out into the night traffic, the silence in the car thick and heavy, neither of them having spoken more than a few necessary words since the incident in the lobby earlier that day.
Ivory stared out the window, arms crossed tightly over her chest, replaying the image that had been burned into her mind since that afternoon — Duane’s phone screen, another woman’s bare skin, the casual way he’d been scrolling through it like it was nothing at all.
Maybe all men really are the same, she thought bitterly, the old wound reopening slightly despite everything they’d shared over the past weeks. Maybe I was foolish to think he’d be any different.
The silence stretched on for several more minutes before Duane finally broke it.
“Are you still angry?” he asked quietly, eyes flicking to the mirror. “About what you saw.”
“Yes, give me a damn reason why I won’t be angry!!! pervert!!!, can’t believe you were watching another’s girl nudity pics!! whore!!” Ivory said flatly, not looking at him.
“Why are you so worked up about it?” he pressed, genuinely confused. “I told you, someone sent that to me. I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t even want to see it.”
Ivory’s jaw tightened, something raw and vulnerable finally cracking through her carefully maintained composure.
“Because,” she said, voice trembling slightly despite her best effort to keep it steady, “I want to be the only girl you see. The only photos you look at. The only body or skin you see, the only nakedness you see!!!, Is that so hard to understand, Duane?”
The car jerked to an abrupt stop in the middle of the road, tires screeching slightly against the asphalt.
Duane turned around fully in his seat, staring back at her, something shifting rapidly across his face.
TBC.
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