Chapter 1401:


    Medical personnel wheeled Marisa toward the surgical preparation area. Her face had drained of all color, yet she fought to maintain consciousness with visible determination.


    “Try to stay calm. Your injuries could have been much worse,” the surgeon assigned to her case offered with practiced reassurance. “We’ll extract the shrapnel quickly and have you recovering in no time.”


    Ethan recognized the lie in thoseforting words immediately.


    Earlier, he’d caught fragments of the doctor’s hushed conversation with Maxwell. “The shrapnel embedded itself in the thigh bone… Immediate removal is critical to prevent bone marrow infection from developing.”


    Standing beside Marisa’s gurney, Ethan trembled as his shoulders shook with suppressed emotion. He kept his head bowed, unable to force out even a single syble.


    He should have been the one bleeding on this table, not her. But when the moment arrived, she’d shoved him aside without a second’s hesitation.


    Words crowded desperately in his mouth—”I’m sorry,” “Thank you,” even “Don’t frighten me like this”—but each one lodged there like stones, forming a blockage that strangled his breath.


    He couldn’t find thenguage to convey the terrible tension, the gnawing unease, the crushing guilt that threatened to suffocate him.


    Marisa studied him before releasing a soft sound of exasperation. “Tsk. Ethan, stop looking at me like that.”


    Pain etched lines across her features, yet she managed to summon a brave smile. “I’m not dying here, you know.”


    She extended her hand and jabbed the back of his with one finger. “It’s merely a flesh wound, right? If I’m not terrified, why should you be?”


    That gesture shattered something inside Ethan’s chest. He lifted his gaze, eyes brimming with unshed tears that caught the harsh fluorescent light. “I-I’m sorry…”


    Marisa arched one eyebrow in challenge. “What are you apologizing for? Didn’t I tell you already—I’ve got your back no matter what happens?”


    Get lost in stories on g?lnσν???s﹒??????


    She tilted her chin upward with defiant pride. “You should be thanking me, not apologizing.”


    Ethan blinked in surprise, and then his voice cracked as he spoke. “Thank you for saving me… for taking that bullet meant for me.”


    The moment those words left his mouth, awkwardness crashed over him like a wave. He’d transformed into someone he barely recognized. His hand flew up to scratch his head while his ears zed crimson.


    Marisa couldn’t help the softugh that bubbled up at his clumsy sincerity. “Actually, you could have stopped after ‘saving me.''”


    She waved dismissively, and then inhaled deeply to push back against the throbbing pain. “If you genuinely want to thank me, you can buy me an incredible meal.”


    Ethan froze, clearly caught off guard.


    Marisa pressed forward. “Just the two of us. Nobody else.”


    Her heart performed an erratic dance the instant those words emerged, but she maintained an expression of perfectposure.


    After a weighted silence stretched between them, she emphasized the point again with quiet intensity. “Did you hear me clearly? You and me. Just us.”


    She understood her own mind with crystalline rity. If Ethan dared to extend that invitation to anyone else—especially Mnie—she would turn her back on him permanently and never waste another word on this infuriating fool.


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