?Chapter 1511:


    Whatever demons tormented him ran far deeper than she’d ever imagined.


    Ste’s voice emerged fractured and desperate as William’s hand tightened around her throat. “William… I’m not here to hurt you. Please… let go…”


    William’s pupils contracted for just a heartbeat before darker, moreplex emotions flooded back in and swallowed that brief flicker of recognition.


    William’s hand mped around her arm with bruising force, nails threatening to break through skin.


    He spoke through gravel and broken ss, refusing to meet her eyes. “Don’t look at me like that. I won’t tolerate it… Don’t you dare pity me!”


    He didn’t need anyone’s pity—least of all hers.


    Tears spilled down Ste’s cheeks and dropped onto the back of his hand. “I’m not pitying you. I just can’t stand watching you suffer like this. Tell me what I can do—anything to make this even slightly better.”


    Something in her words reached through the chaos and pulled him back toward the surface. The angry crimson flooding his eyes receded, if only for a moment.


    He stared at the woman before him—face wet with tears, desperately trying to calm the storm raging inside him—and somethingplicated flickered across his features.


    Ste continued speaking softly, trying to ease him back to himself, but the pain radiating from her arm became unbearable. She couldn’t suppress the wince or the small, pained sound that escaped her lips.


    His gaze dropped to his own hands, and he saw the angry red marks blooming across her skin where his fingers had been.


    He released her as if she’d burned him, stumbling backward and sending the low stool behind him ttering to the floor.


    Ste slid down the wall and copsed onto the floor, coughing so hard her entire body shook.


    Her arm throbbed with searing pain. Her neck would certainly bruise, and her back ached viciously where it had mmed into the wall.


    But she didn’t examine her injuries. Instead, she raised her head and found William standing there looking utterly lost, like a child who’d just realized what he’d done.


    His shoulders shook with barely perceptible tremors as the violent frenzy gradually drained from his body.


    Silence crashed down over the room, heavy and suffocating.


    Neither of them spoke.


    As seconds stretched into minutes, awareness seemed to dawn on William. Self-loathing flooded his eyes, dark and consuming.


    After what felt like an eternity, Ste pressed her palms against the wall and pushed herself upright.


    She ignored the pain radiating through every nerve and crossed the distance to William. Her fingers found his sleeve, tugging carefully, her touch feather-light as if he might shatter at any sudden movement.


    Her voice emerged barely above a whisper. “William, it’s over now. Everything’s going to be alright…”


    William kept his gaze fixed on the floor, but his breathing slowly evened out, bing steadier with each passing moment.


    That night, Ste never returned to her own room. She settled onto the small sofa in his room, maintaining a careful distance but never taking her eyes off him.


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