?Chapter 1216:


    Pressed against him, Ste clutched her temple, the pounding growing worse. Her vision flickered in and out of focus, and the same blurry figure beneath the stars shed through her mind again and again, each time cutting deeper than before.


    “It feels like…” Her breath came in shallow gasps, her eyes unfocused as she struggled to shape her thoughts. “I saw stars… and someone standing there. It hurts so much—I can’t breathe!”


    Marc felt his chest tighten, his heart plunging as dread took hold.


    Another Memory


    He pulled her close, his voice trembling with panic. “Stel, stay with me. I’ll get you to the hospital. Just hold on, please!”


    Without wasting another second, he guided Ste out of the art gallery—the very ce he’d chosen to symbolize the beginning of their love. Tonight, it had be a scene of fear instead of joy.


    Marc helped Ste into the car, but before twenty minutes had passed, the engine sputtered and died. The hospital was still a solid twenty minutes away.


    Ste had been resting her head against the window the whole time, her expression tight with difort.


    Ste rested her head against the window, her face still carrying a dazed look.


    That hazy figure and the gleam of that familiar ring were etched in her mind, refusing to disappear. Who exactly was that? Could it possibly be Marc?


    If Marc was the one beside her, shouldn’t her heart feel at peace? Then why did it hurt so much instead?


    Marc’s hands tightened around the steering wheel until his knuckles nched.


    He never imagined his well-nned proposal would fall apart like this. When he looked at Ste leaning against the window, a wave of fear washed over him—fear that she might remember everything. Sharon’s and Josie’s cautions wouldn’t stop circling through his mind.


    If Ste kept slipping into those shes of memory, could he truly bear it, again and again?


    He had once believed he could shoulder anything, that her sudden copses and moments of confusion were trials he could weather. But now, doubt crept in like a shadow he couldn’t shake.


    Read it first on g?lno?els.c?m


    “Stel, can you hear me?”


    Ste’s eyes stayed shut, hershes trembling. Only short, ragged breaths escaped her lips.


    Marc twisted the ignition again and again until the engine finally caught with a shuddering roar, breaking the silence of the deserted road.


    Without hesitation, he pressed harder on the elerator. The car surged forward, headlights cutting through the darkness as he raced toward the hospital.


    Once there, nurses rushed Ste into the examination room, leaving Marc pacing in the corridor, the walls closing in with every passing minute. Each tick of the clock echoed like a hammer in his chest.


    “Doctor, how is she doing?”


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