Chapter 22
The nurse couldn’t help glancing at Julian’s pale, disoriented face.
“You should count yourself lucky,” she muttered. “You made it through the
She hesitated for a moment before adding, “Whoever it is you were hoping would
The words cut deeper than they should’ve.
Julian’s jaw tightened. His eyes flared with a sudden fury.
“Get out!” he barked, voice hoarse and trembling.
Then he lost it–ripping out the IV, shoving the tray off the bedside table.
Mat.
downpour. Most people wouldn’t have.”
clearly doesn’t give a damn.”
He wasn’t trying to make a point. He was just… drowning. In rage. In grief. In the kind of heartbreak that begged to be broken into something louder.
The nurse recoiled, startled. “You need help,” she snapped before storming out.
When the door slammed shut, Julian collapsed back down onto the cold tile floor, his
strength
gone. He
didn’t
His arm was still bleeding where he’d yanked the needle out.
He was burning up with fever, dizzy, drenched in sweat–but he didn’t care.
His mind drifted.
Back to a different hospital room, years ago-
Back when he’d just gotten together with Savannah.
ninarriage even bother to get up.
He’d fallen seriously ill, the kind of sick that had everyone worried he wouldn’t pull through.
Savannah had stayed by his side the whole time, barely sleeping, refusing to leave.
Back then, they were everything to each other. There were no third parties. No secrets. No betrayal.
Just her, in the oversized hoodie she wore like armor, running around doing everything the doctors didn’t.
Every time he’d opened his eyes, she was there. Eyes swollen from crying. Holding his hand like she could anchor him to this world.
One day, when he was lucid enough, Julian had asked his lawyer to draft a will.
Savannah’s name was all over it.
When she found out, she was furious. She’d torn the document in half and refused to speak to him for days.
He’d tried to apologize, but she just stared at him, fuming.
“If you ever insult me like that again,” she’d said through clenched teeth, “I swear I’ll walk. I’ll leave so far you’ll never find me.” Julian had just stared at her, dazed, thinking-
God, I’m done for. I’m really in deep with this woman.
But years passed. And somewhere along the line, he got comfortable.
He got stupid.
He met Delilah Monroe. And maybe it was the timing, or the ego, or just plain selfishness–but he slipped.
She reminded him of Savannah in the early days. The spark. The fire. The edge.
He told himself it was harmless. A one–time detour.
Chapter 22
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After all, men in their world had affairs all the time. It didn’t mean anything.
He still planned to keep Savannah by his side. Nothing could replace her. Not really.
Even the divorce papers–they were more of a bluff than a goodbye.
He thought he could pull them back anytime. Rewrite the ending. Reclaim what was his.
But Savannah wasn’t the type to stay where she wasn’t wanted.
She wasn’t the type to forgive betrayal.
And he had underestimated just how final her silence could be.
Sometime before dawn, Julian’s fever finally broke.
He blinked up at the flickering ceiling light, heart pounding with hope.
But the room was empty.
No familiar figure curled in a chair. No soft voice calling his name.
Just him, alone, sprawled on the floor of a hospital room that reeked of antiseptic and regret.
And that’s when it finally hit him.
Savannah wasn’t coming.
Not today.
Not ever.
He pressed a trembling hand to his face, trying to stop the sobs, but they came anyway–deep, cracked, and ugly,
For the first time, he didn’t try to fight them.
Because all he wanted was to turn back time.
And he knew, with crushing clarity, that if he could do it all over again-
He never would’ve let her go.
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Chapter 22
