Chapter 169 Whispers on the Quad

Micah’s POV

Damon cried for twenty minutes straight when I told him I was leaving the country.

I never in a million years imagined Damon Silver would break down like that. When Noah heard the news, he kicked a wooden stool and yelled at the walls. But Damon? Damon completely fell apart.

He paced back and forth across my hospital room, running both hands violently through his dark hair, tears streaming down his face as he choked on his words.

“You’re abandoning me?!” Damon demanded, his voice cracking with panicked, raw desperation. “After everything we went through?! After I carried you out of that hellhole covered in your blood?!”

He was so stubborn that he made Noah look calm. Damon swore he was going to buy a plane ticket, pack his bags, and follow me wherever I went. He said he didn’t give a damn about college, hockey, or his father’s company. He insisted that if I was leaving, he was boarding the exact same flight.

It took everything in me to calm him down. I grabbed his hand, made him sit on the edge of the mattress, and explained my reasons until my throat went dry. I told him that I needed space to stand on my own two feet, to figure out who Micah Wilson was without relying on someone else to save me. I promised him that this wasn’t goodbye forever—that once I rebuilt my life, we would see each other again.

After endless arguing, Damon finally wiped his wet cheeks on his sleeve, glared at me with swollen eyes, and gave in. Just like Noah, he agreed to wait for me.

I spent four long weeks in St. Jude Hospital.

My shattered shoulder took time to knit back together. The doctors ran endless physical therapy sessions, while David’s private security guarded my floor like an impenetrable fortress.

By the time the doctors finally discharged me, two months remained before final semester exams.

Noah surprised me. Instead of flying straight to Greece to claim his father’s vault, Noah chose to stay. He wanted to finish the semester alongside me, attend his final varsity matches, and personally make sure I made it through every single day until the term ended.

Returning to campus terrified me to my core.

For the past month, the entire city had been obsessed with the collapse of the syndicate. Every news channel, newspaper, and radio broadcast covered the horrors of Plan Mayor. Everyone knew that Bernard Miller had orchestrated the abductions of those college athletes.

And everyone on campus knew me as Bernard Miller’s son.

I was convinced that the moment I set foot on campus, the students would tear me apart. I expected cruel insults, shoved lockers, and endless torment. What hurt the most was that Sunny and Raven hadn’t visited me once during my month in the hospital. Not a single phone call. Not a single text message.

I assumed they despised me. Bernard had locked Sunny in an underground cage for more than seven days, starving her in the dark. How could she ever look at my face again without remembering the monster who put her there?

I didn’t want to go back. I had spent my entire life trying to be invisible, and now I was returning as the most infamous pariah on campus.

The low hum of Noah’s car engine slowed as we turned into the university drop-off circle.

Noah pulled the car smoothly to the curb right in front of the main humanities building. He shifted into park, turned in his seat, and looked at me.

His sharp blue eyes were soft, filled with quiet, protective warmth.

Noah reached his bare hand out, his fingers gently brushing my hair back, and pressed a tender kiss against my forehead.

“Take care today, Micah,” Noah murmured, his deep voice wrapping around me like armor. “Don’t carry your books with that left arm. If anyone gives you grief, if anyone says a single wrong word to you… you call me immediately. I’ll be training at the ice rink.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and forced a nod. “I will. Thank you, Noah.”

I reached over with my good right hand, grabbed my backpack strap, and pushed the passenger door open.

My left arm was still tightly bound against my ribs in a supportive medical sling, the thick white bandages hidden beneath an oversized navy jacket.

The moment my shoes hit the concrete pavement, Noah gave me a final reassuring nod, shifted into drive, and accelerated smoothly away toward the athletic complex.

I stood completely frozen on the wide stone courtyard.

The morning air was cold, biting against my cheeks, but within seconds, my entire face burned with blistering heat.

The bustling chatter in the quad died down almost instantly.

Dozens of students walking to their morning lectures stopped in their tracks. Groups standing near the fountain turned their heads. Friends nudged each other with their elbows, their eyes locking onto me like spotlights.

I felt like an animal exposed in a slaughterhouse.

My stomach churned with sick, suffocating embarrassment. I wanted the stone floor beneath my boots to crack open and swallow me whole.

I lowered my chin, staring fixedly at the tips of my shoes, but I couldn’t block out the sharp, cutting whispers drifting through the chilly breeze.

“Look… isn’t that him?”

“Yeah, that’s Micah Miller…”

“The son of that kidnapper…”

“I heard he was in the hospital for weeks…”

Every single word felt like a physical slap across my face.

I couldn’t stand there for another second. I clenched my right fist around my backpack strap, turned my body away from the crowd, and hurried toward the wide glass double doors of the building.

I pushed through the entrance into the crowded hallway, hoping the interior would give me cover.

It was worse inside.

The hallway was packed with students leaning against lockers and rushing to lecture halls. The moment they noticed me walking past, conversations halted mid-sentence. People pressed their backs against the lockers to make space, staring at my sling, their fingers pointing openly at my chest as I rushed past.

Tears of pure humiliation stung the corners of my eyes.

This was a terrible idea, my mind screamed in panic. I shouldn’t have come back. I should have stayed locked in that hospital room.

“Micah!”

A sharp, familiar voice cut through the heavy silence behind me.

My boots skidded to a halt on the linoleum tiles.

My heart leaped straight into my throat. I slowly turned my head around, bracing myself for the worst.

Standing twenty feet down the corridor, weaving through the parting crowd of students, were Raven and Sunny.

Raven was holding a stack of media folders against her chest, her dark hair tied back in her usual messy bun. And right beside her was Sunny, wearing a bright yellow sweater, her blonde hair bouncing over her shoulders, her cheeks flushed with morning color.

Before I could even open my mouth to stutter an apology, both of them broke into a full sprint.

“Micah!” Sunny yelled again, her eyes shining with tears.

They reached me in seconds.

Sunny didn’t hesitate. She threw her arms gently around my right side, burying her face into my shoulder, being careful not to touch my injured arm. Raven wrapped her arms around both of us from behind, squeezing me so tightly that the breath rushed out of my lungs.

“You idiot!” Raven gasped, sniffing hard against my jacket. “You’re finally back!”

I stood there in complete shock, my good right hand hovering awkwardly in the air before slowly wrapping around Sunny’s back.

“Sunny…” I whispered, my voice cracking with overwhelming relief. “You’re okay… I’m so happy you’re safe.”

Sunny pulled back slightly, wiping a tear from her cheek, her face breaking into a wide, radiant smile. “Of course I’m okay! Phoenix practically locked me in the house for two weeks, but I’m completely fine! Look at you! Look at your poor arm!”

The guilt that had been eating my soul for a month finally spilled over.

“I thought… I thought you two hated me,” I confessed quietly, looking down at the floor. “You never came to the hospital. You never called. I thought after what happened in that bunker, after what my father did to you…”

“What?!” Raven interrupted, letting out an outraged scoff that echoed down the hall.

Raven crossed her arms, glaring at me like I had lost my mind. “Are you insane, Micah? We tried to visit you every single day! We brought flowers, we brought pastries, and Phoenix even tried to bring you a fruit basket!”

I blinked, thoroughly confused. “You did?”

“Yes!” Sunny giggled, shaking her head. “Your terrifying brother posted four giant, armed security guards right outside the elevator doors! They wouldn’t let a single soul set foot on your floor! The only person allowed into your room was Damon Silver!”

My jaw dropped open.

Noah.

Of course Noah had put my entire recovery wing on military lockdown. He had probably threatened to shoot anyone who tried to deliver flowers.

“And don’t you ever say ‘what my father did’ again,” Raven added, her expression turning fierce and protective. “Everyone in this school knows the truth, Micah.”

I froze. “What do you mean?”

“The media reports,” Raven explained, lowering her voice as she leaned in close. “When the news broke about the syndicate, the investigative journalists released the full history. The whole city knows that Bernard Miller was a deranged monster who abducted you and Noah when you were little children. Everyone knows you two were his very first victims.”

My breath hitched in my chest.

They didn’t refer to Bernard as my father. They didn’t see me as an accomplice.

“The students staring at you in the halls?” Sunny whispered, gesturing toward the crowd around us. “They aren’t glaring at you in anger, Micah. They feel terribly sorry for you. They’re just intimidated by what you survived. Nobody knows how to walk up to you after everything that came out.”

I slowly lifted my head, looking across the crowded hallway.

Raven was right.

The students watching me didn’t have disgust or hatred in their expressions. Their faces were filled with quiet shock, sympathy, and profound awe. They were looking at a boy who had survived years in a monster’s house and taken a bullet to the shoulder to protect his classmates.

The suffocating shame that had been crushing my ribs completely evaporated.

A quiet, genuine warmth bloomed in my chest.

“Come on,” Sunny smiled brightly, gently looping her arm through my good right elbow. “We have Media Law in five minutes, and Professor Davis will lock the doors if we’re late.”

“Let’s go,” Raven grinned, taking the lead.

I let them guide me down the bright, noisy hallway toward our lecture hall.

For the first time in my entire life, the air didn’t feel heavy. Everything was finally moving smoothly. The syndicate was gone, my brother was free, and my friends were walking right beside me.

Just two months left of the semester.

I would pass my exams, say my goodbyes, and step onto that plane to become Micah Wilson.