Chapter 259
Chapter 259:
“I’m not giving up on you,” I whisper, the words barely making it past the lump in my throat. “Even if it kills me, I’ll fix this p>
The room is silent, but the weight of everything presses down on me until I feel like I might break. I stay there, listening to her soft breaths, trying to convince myself that this isn’t the end. But for the first time in my life, I’m not sure I believe it.
Jasmine’s POV
I wake up to the feeling of eyes on me, and for a second, I don’t know where I am. The room is still dim, the faint light filtering through the curtains. My body feels heavy, like I’ve been carrying a weight for too long. And then I see him. Ryder.
He’s sitting in the chair beside the bed, his gaze fixed on me with such intensity that it makes my breath catch. There’s something in his eyes—a mixture of pain, confusion, and something else I can’t quite name. His jaw is clenched tight, and I can see the effort it’s taking for him to stay calm.
“Hey,” he says softly, his voice rough, like he’s been holding in too much.
“Hey,” I whisper back, my throat dry. My heart flutters just seeing him, but there’s a pit in my stomach, a sense of dread I can’t shake. He takes a slow breath, like he’s trying to find the right words. And then he asks the question that makes everything inside me freeze.
“Did you… did you not accept Jason’s rejection p>
The words hit me like a punch. My body goes rigid, and I can feel the blood drain from my face. I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. My eyes lock onto his, and I can see the hurt there, the hope that I’ll say something to make this all go away. To make it make sense. But I can’t.
I couldn’t look at him, not fully. I turned my face to the side, but his gaze still felt like it was burning into me. The words were stuck in my throat, too heavy to say out loud, but I knew I had to answer.
I force myself to swallow, my throat feeling like sandpaper. My lips tremble, and then I finally get the words out.
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“No… I didn’t accept it p>
There it was. Out in the open. The truth that I’d been running from. The one thing I had been trying to bury so deep inside me. I could feel his eyes on me, waiting for an explanation, but I didn’t have one. At least not one that made sense.
The silence that follows is deafening. Ryder’s face doesn’t change right away. He just stares at me, his expression unreadable. But his eyes… his eyes tell a different story. They go dark, like a shadow has passed over them, and the pain in them deepens.
He leans back in the chair, his hands clenching into fists on his thighs. “Why?” he asks, his voice barely above a whisper, like he’s afraid of the answer.
I look away because I can’t handle that look in his eyes. It’s too much. My fingers twist the edge of the blanket, and I take a shaky breath. My chest feels tight, my heart hammering in a way that makes me feel sick.
“Because…” My voice cracks, and I close my eyes, trying to steady myself. “Because I was still in love with him p>
The words hang in the air, heavy and bitter. I feel like they’ve cut a piece out of me just by saying them out loud. I don’t dare look at Ryder, but I can feel the change in the air, the tension thickening between us. It hurt to say it, to admit how foolish I had been. But it was the truth, no matter how much I wished it wasn’t. Jason had been my obsession for so long.
“I thought…” My voice falters, and tears burn behind my eyes. “I thought maybe there was still hope. That maybe he’d change. That maybe we’d get a second chance p>
My voice is barely audible now, and the shame washes over me like a wave. How stupid does that sound? Holding onto a crush that was toxic, thinking that Jason—of all people—could suddenly become the person I needed. It feels pathetic even to say it, but it’s the truth.