Chapter 76

• *The Weight of Silence*
• Tension coiled in the air like an unspoken scream, pressing down on everyone waiting outside the emergency room.
• Arthur stood by the large glass window, staring into the distance. His broad shoulders were rigid, his hands buried deep in his pockets. The city stretched before him, a maze of glowing lights and moving cars—oblivious to the war waging inside this sterile, suffocating space. His reflection stared back at him, carved from stone, unmoved, unreadable. But the tight clench of his jaw, the way his fingers curled into fists inside his pockets, betrayed the storm raging in his soul.