Chapter 949
“These feelings just keep ambushing me. When I think about the injuries he suffered, the hell he went through, and everything he sacrificed… it breaks my heart.”
“But the second I remember everything that happened between him and Bianca, I instinctively put my walls back up.”
It was a giant, tangled mess.
If they were keeping score, she undoubtedly owed Seth way more than he owed
her.
But you couldn’t quantify love with fairness.
You couldn’t sit there calculating who sacrificed more, or who owed who what.
Claire shook her head softly. “What you’re experiencing is trauma. You’ve been brutally hurt, so whenever your emotions start to spike, your self-defense mechanisms kick in. You push away anyone who holds power over your feelings, whether their intentions are genuine or not.”
“But honey, if you’re too terrified of getting hurt, you’ll never find happiness.”
Claire glanced back at Beau, still whining by the glass doors.
“Look at Beau. If he’s too scared to ever step outside, he’ll never get to see the sky. He’ll spend his entire life trapped in a perfectly safe, perfectly boring glass box.”
“He’ll be safe, but he’ll never be free.”
She poured Noreen another glass. “Happiness and pain always come in a package deal.”
They drank deep into the night.
Even Beau gave up his vigil, curling up against the glass to sleep.
Driven by her chaotic thoughts, Noreen drank far more than Claire and had to be half-carried back to her bedroom.
She passed out, aided by the alcohol.
She slept deeply, trapped in a recurring nightmare.
She dreamed she was being thrown into the ocean over and over again. Freezing water flooded her nose and throat. The burning salt and the suffocating pressure dragged her down.
Her arms and legs felt bound by invisible chains, rendering every desperate struggle completely useless.
She tried to scream, but only a few pitiful bubbles escaped her lips.
Just as her consciousness began to fade and her body surrendered to the depths, a figure pierced the surface like a torpedo, diving straight toward her without a second of hesitation.
It was Seth.
Through the blurred, distorted water, his panicked expression remained vividly clear.
In the dream, Seth repeatedly threw himself into the raging sea, using
every ounce of his strength to shove her upward tearing her from the jaws of death. FindNovel.net
The last time it happened, Noreen snapped awake, a thin layer of sweat covering her forehead.
Her throat was parched. She stumbled into the kitchen and downed two full glasses of water before the burning subsided.
The second she collapsed back into bed, the vibration of her phone startled her. Seth was calling.
The clock on her nightstand read 4:30 AM.
Noreen’s brain was still muddy, blurring the line between reality and the dream.
She answered it.
“Are you still up, or did I wake you?” Seth asked.
His voice was completely normal, as if chatting at four in the morning was an everyday occurrence.
So Noreen didn’t think much of it. “I was thirsty, just got up for some water. Why are you calling so late?”
“…No reason,” he replied after a split-second pause. “Go back to sleep. We’ll talk when you wake up.”
Noreen thought he was acting a bit strange.
But she didn’t press him. She just murmured an acknowledgment and hung up.
She was about to put her phone away when she noticed the barrage of text messages Seth had sent her.
The first was at 11:28 PM, right when she and Claire had started drinking. [Noreen, let’s talk. Please.]
11:40 PM.
[If you don’t reply, I’m taking that as a yes.]
12:01 AM.
[I want to call you, but I know you won’t pick up. Especially since your friend is there.]
12:28 AM.
[You said you and Dylan were never
a thing. So back then, when you said
you
a loved someone else… you w lying weren’t you? Congs
[I was such a damn idiot. I always thought you were in love with Dylan. I thought I was ruining your relationship That’s why said I was the other man