chapter293
His voice choked with tears, his body still trembling.
Hearing his words, Bianca felt a wave of sourness in her chest.
She didn’t respond, remaining silent.
Only after a long while did Elvin lift his face from her neck. He looked at her again, eyes red as blood, grabbed her hand, and slapped it hard against his own face.
When Elvin tried to strike again, Bianca struggled fiercely against him, “Elvin, what are you doing?”
Unable to move her hand further, Elvin stared into Bianca’s deep, dark eyes. “Bianca Watts,” he said, “You started this. You broke your word. You lied to me. You liar.”
Bianca looked utterly bewildered. Gazing into Elvin’s reddened eyes, she murmured, “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
Elvin kept staring at her, for what felt like an eternity.
Finally, he let out a bitter laugh. “Fine if you don’t understand. Better if you never do.”
She couldn’t recall their promise. But since she loved Blair Avery so much, perhaps it was better forgotten.
Remembering would only bring her pain.
Better this way, Elvin thought. Better she stayed like this.
22
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With that, Elvin pushed himself up from Bianca.
Standing by the hospital bed, under the cover of night, he silently lifted. a hand and wiped away two fallen tears.
Bianca couldn’t see his expression clearly, nor guess his thoughts.
But she felt it deeply, truly – Elvin seemed genuinely heartbroken.
Before she could speak, Elvin turned and walked toward the door.
Watching his retreating figure, Bianca instinctively called out, “Elvin,
wait-”
He cut her off before she could finish. “Bianca Watts,” his voice echoed back, “For the rest of your life, you’d better never remember that promise.”
With those words, Elvin ran out of the ward.
Staying one more second, he feared he’d lose control.
Seeing Elvin gone from the doorway, Bianca swallowed back the words on her lips.
After Elvin left, Bianca lost all sleepiness. She sat blankly on the hospital bed, lost in thought for a long while.
She didn’t understand what Elvin meant by her “starting it with him,” but she vaguely sensed they might have shared some past connection.
Yet somehow, her memory held no trace of Elvin.
And what was this promise he mentioned?
Sleeping Away the Blues
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After Elvin left that night, Bianca Watts tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
Blair Avery’s promise to return had evaporated like a soap bubble.
Come morning, the nurse came for rounds, leaving Bianca even more wide awake.
She grabbed her phone and scrolled through videos, inexplicably landing on Diane Huffman’s account.
Despite tapping “Not Interested,” the algorithm kept pushing it her way.
Since it popped up, Bianca watched it through.
Diane had stitched together several clips.
The first showed her tear–streaked face in a close–up shot, a man’s silhouette faintly visible behind her.
Undoubtedly, it was Blair–apparently massaging her shoulders.
The second clip captured Blair walking toward the bathroom in his
robe.
The third had him facing away, slipping off the robe until half his back was exposed–then the screen cut abruptly.
These snippets merged into one video with a catchy soundtrack.
The caption read: “Had the worst day. Chose the wrong research topic and got scolded by my professor. Called you–no answer–but when I texted saying I was sad, you replied instantly saying you’d come right over. Seeing you walk through that door made all my hurt swell up… until you said ‘Stop crying‘ and calmed me down. You promised to cheer me up–never imagined it’d be like this. Love how you quietly get
things done.”
Bianca couldn’t help analyzing it frame by frame.
