Chapter 923
[ 523 words ]
Chapter 923:
Lianne’s POV:
I held Ethan’s gaze, refusing to let him hide behind silence. “Ethan, what exactly is going on between you and Melisa? Have you two already…”
I had always been convinced that Ethan’s almost obsessive need for order, privacy, and control would make him unwilling to let another woman get close to him.
After spending so many years beside him, I knew his habits and boundaries better than anyone.
He couldn’t stand people handling his belongings, and he was even more intolerant of anyone stepping into the space he considered his own.
Yet the kiss he’d just given me had been instinctive, intense, and far too familiar. It certainly hadn’t felt like the hesitant, unfamiliar kiss of someone without intimacy for a long time.
That wasn’t how a man unfamiliar with kissing would behave.
𝖲𝘵o𝗋іе𝗌 уоu 𝘄𝘰ո’t р𝘂𝗍 𝖽𝘰𝗐n 𝘰𝘯 𝘨𝘢𝗅n𝗼vе𝘭𝘀.𝗰𝘰𝗆
If the affection I’d seen in his eyes, the way he’d clung to me, and that feverish kiss had all been directed toward Melisa, then every bit of hope I’d secretly carried through these past days had been nothing but a ridiculous fantasy.
Still standing beside his bed, I looked down at him. “Ethan, who were you trying so desperately to protect in that dream?”
He immediately looked away. He didn’t answer, but that deliberate avoidance told me more than words could have.
The realization twisted my stomach. The absurdity of everything was almost sickening. I turned around, ready to leave.
A second later, his hand shot out and locked around my wrist.
I glanced down and noticed the IV needle at the back of his hand had shifted because of the sudden movement. Blood was already beginning to seep through the gauze.
Yet he showed no intention of releasing me. His fingers remained clamped around my wrist with enough force to make my bones ache.
“Let go,” I ordered coldly.
“Lianne…” His voice came out rough and quiet. “Melisa and I have never crossed that kind of boundary. Not once.”
I didn’t buy it. I looked straight at him and challenged him, “Then what was that kiss? And who were you trying so desperately to save in your dream? Ethan, look me in the eyes and tell me honestly that when you kissed me, you were thinking about me.”
His lips parted. He finally lowered his gaze and spoke so quietly that I almost missed it. “Rola. The person I was trying to save was Rola.”
I went completely still. Rola. His grandmother, who had already passed away.
The moment I saw how drained he looked, some of the hardness inside me eased.
So that was it. Her death had been weighing on him all this time. Perhaps that was why he had insisted on ending our relationship back then.
Maybe, somewhere inside himself, he had always believed that he had failed Rola when she needed him most. Perhaps that guilt was what kept dragging him back into those dreams where he desperately tried to save her.
I pushed the mess of emotions aside and decided not to question him anymore. I stood, poured him some water, then helped him sit upright before placing the glass in his hand.
His fingertips grazed mine as he accepted it, and I immediately withdrew my hand.
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