Chapter 440
[ 553 words ]
Chapter 440:
Tears streamed down her face. She shook her head wildly, rushing back to the slab. She tried to brace against the concrete with her bandaged hands, but the sharp, stabbing pain from her healing palms flared instantly, the grit and pressure threatening to tear the dressings right off her skin. It was like trying to move a mountain. It didn’t budge an inch.
“Why?” she sobbed, her voice breaking. “Why did you do that?”
He looked at her, his gaze clear and serious, all traces of the cynic gone forever. “I don’t know,” he whispered. “Guess I just… didn’t want to see you die.”
The simple, direct words struck her heart with the force of a physical blow.
She refused to accept it. Her eyes darted around the debris-strewn landing and found it: a length of twisted steel rebar. Clenching her teeth against the agony that rippled up her arms from her raw palms, she used her forearms and the heels of her hands—carefully protecting the most sensitive, bandaged areas—to wedge the metal into a crack beneath the slab.
She put her entire body weight into it, using it as a lever, her hands screaming in protest as the coarse metal pressed against the edges of her bandages.
“You saved my life,” she grunted, the words torn from her as she strained, tears and sweat mixing on her face. “I’m not letting you die here. I swear it!”
Her body trembled with the impossible effort, but her eyes burned with a fierce, unbreakable resolve. As another tremor shook the dying building, she shielded her head from falling plaster but did not, for one second, stop trying to move the unmovable weight.
The violent tremor finally subsided, leaving behind a silence so deep it felt like a pressure in her ears. Dust, thick and chalky, drifted in the air, the only thing moving in the darkness.
Sterling was pinned beneath the concrete, each breath a shallow, ragged gasp. The pain was a white-hot fire consuming him, but his first instinct was to look at her. To make sure she was okay.
“Go,” he rasped, his voice thin. “Caroline, get out of here.”
𝘐n𝗍𝗲𝗇ѕ𝗲 𝘳𝗈𝗺𝖺n𝖼e о𝗻 𝗀𝖺lո𝗼𝗏e𝗹ѕ.𝗰𝗈𝘮
She ignored him. The steel rebar was heavy in her hands, its cold reality a focus point in the chaos. She jammed it into a crack beneath the slab, braced her shoulder against the end, and pushed. Her muscles screamed. Her face flushed with the strain, veins standing out on her neck. The massive weight didn’t move. Not a fraction of an inch.
“Stop, Caroline,” Sterling’s voice was rough with pain. “You’ll exhaust yourself.”
She didn’t listen. She repositioned the bar, trying to find a better angle, and threw her entire body into it again. A low grunt was torn from her throat.
“I swore,” she muttered, the words a prayer to herself. “I swore I wouldn’t let you die here.”
He watched her, a frantic silhouette against the faint light filtering through the dust. A complicated emotion filled his chest, a painful mix of tenderness and helplessness.
He tried to lighten the suffocating atmosphere, forcing a weak, crooked smile. “Hey, if you kill me trying to save me, I’ll haunt you. At least let me… enjoy the view in peace.”
.
.
.
Message from Noa: Hiii lovely readers, hope you have a great day. God loves you and Noa wishes you all the best. (=◡=) /
.
If you find any errors (non-standard content, ads redirect, broken links, etc..), Please let us know so we can fix it as soon as possible.