Chapter 1642:


    “Chris — you absolute —”


    He stared at the screen, tears swimming in his eyes, hot and blurring his vision. His whole body began to shake violently, as if caught between fire and ice.


    Images crashed through his mind in a relentless flood — moments of cold indifference since he woke from the brain surgery, cruel mockery, the day he forced her to talk about divorce. Every misunderstanding, every harsh word had transformed into venomous spikes, piercing his heart without mercy and twisting in his chest until he could barely breathe.


    “What have I done?”


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    He had nearly shoved his beloved woman out of his life forever.


    Divorce?


    “Over my dead body.”


    His eyes zed at the screen, jaw clenched so tight it ached. The words tore from his throat, raw and desperate. “I won’t divorce her. Not in this life, not in the next, not in a hundred more. And more than that — I’ll shout it from every rooftop. Maia is my wife. The only woman I have ever loved!”


    Then it hit. A blinding spike of agony drove deep into his skull — like an axe splitting him apart from the inside.


    “Ahhh!”


    His hands flew to his head, fingers wing at his scalp as he doubled over in torment. Sweat erupted across his forehead, icy and instant, drenching his clothes in seconds.


    “No — I can’t lose this again. I can’t forget. Not again.”


    He fought with everything he had, grasping at the fragments of memory flooding back, clinging to the love he had only just reimed. But the darkness rolled in like an endless tide. The world went ck. He slumped in his wheelchair, unconscious.


    When Chris’s eyes fluttered open again, he was back in that familiar dream.


    But something was different. The fog hung thicker than ever — a dense, suffocating nket. Rain sheeted down from a leaden sky. Then a sharp crack rang out ahead, and a woman burst into view, dragging a small boy by the hand. Chris recognized them instantly: himself as a child, and his mother, Nic.


    In the next breath, several cars roared forward. Every instinct screamed at him to move, to dodge — but his body wouldn’t obey. The impact never came. The vehicles passed straight through him as if he were made of smoke. Then they stopped, men spilled out with weapons raised, and the gunfire resumed.


    This was new. He had never witnessed this scene in his dreams before.


    Chris pushed forward through the chaos until he stumbled upon a little girl. His heart seized. He approached slowly, dreading the moment he would see that nk, featureless face again.


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