Chapter 411 No More Ifs
Chapter 411 No More Ifs
153
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She drew a quick, startled breath, the question slipping out before she could stop herself. “How do you-”
Han let out a wry, almost self–mockingugh, the sound thin and brittle in the quiet hallway. “Isn’t that exactly what you came here to tell me?”
Quinn pressed her lips together, the faintest tremor giving away the storm beneath her calm exterior. “Yes. I want to start over with Julius.”
Silence swallowed Han. He had braced for this moment, yet hearing the words fall from her own mouth still cut deeper than he thought possible.
The first seed of dread had sprouted the night his uncle told him about the ze–how, long before the firefighters rushed to scene, Julius had sprinted into the inferno to find Quinn and returned covered in wounds.
Facing death has a cruel rity; only then do people recognize the truth beating inside their own hearts.
Since the breakup, he had campaigned with military resolve to im her love again, but her eyes on him remained unchanged from their days in the barracks–kind, appreciative, fatally tonic.
Those eyes were nothing like the way she gazed at Julius.
To her, he was destined to be a younger brother, arade in arms–never the man she would choose to love.
His throat tightened; still, he forced the words past it. “Tell me… is there really no ce for me at all?<b>” </b>
If he did not ask outright, the regret would haunt him forever.
Quinn’s voice was gentle yet firm, as if she wereying a soft nket over a de. “Han, the one I love is Julius. Someday you’ll meet someone you love–and who loves you back just as fiercely.”
A flicker of bitterness crossed Han’s eyes, a silent question of whether fate would grant such
mercy.
They say meeting someone breathtaking in one’s youth is a dangerous blessing; if one <b>misses </b>the chance, that memory will shadow every mile of the road ahead.
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Chapter 411 No More Ifs
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His next words tumbled out, half–hope, half–self–torture. “If, back in the army, I’d confessed howpletely I loved you–would we have had a chance then?”
Even a hypothetical might soothe the sting.
She shook her head, sincerity softening every syble. “I don’t know. Life offers few true what- ifs, Han. I’m sorry–I can’t answer feelings I don’t share.”
Hisshes trembled, yet his gaze never wavered from the woman standing inches away.
He drew a slow breath. “It isn’t your fault you can’t return my love. You owe me no apology.”
A faint, almost mischievous smile curved across his mouth. “So, from here on, friends it is.”
The pain wed inside him, but he refused to add a single gram to the weight she already carried.
She loved Julius, and that settled everything. Han would step aside and seal his feelings away like letters never sent.
From this day forward, he would remain at her side only as a friend, a silent guardian in in sight.
Quinn let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding, eyes brightening with grateful warmth. “Of course–we’ll always be friends!”
Han stepped out of the hospital into a sky washed clean by autumn. He bought a packet of cigarettes at the corner kiosk, leaned against the lone ne tree, and drew the first drag like borrowed courage.
Smoke curled above his hair, silver threads dissolving into the blue, while his gaze drifted to a ce memory could not reach–a missed heartbeat, a conversation never spoken, a future already lost. Only when the cigarette burned down to the filter did he straighten, toss the pack into a trash bin, and climb into the idle car.
Some regrets mayst a lifetime, yet they weighed nothing beside her happiness.
He had learned that truth the night the mes nearly imed her; as long as she was still alive, as long as her heart kept its stubborn rhythm, then his own world was alreadyplete.
Laura stepped out of the mirrored lobby intote–afternoon light, clutching her tablet to her chest. Before she could reach the curb, Weston appeared, suit jacket unbuttoned, eyes fixed on her with undeniable purpose.
She pressed her lips together, intending to stride past him without a word.
17:26 Fri<b>, </b><b>Sep </b><b>19 </b>B
Chapter 411 No More Ifs
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Weston’s hand closed around her forearm. “Still angry with me?” he asked, voice low enough to vibrate against her skin.
Laura rolled her eyes so hard the afternoon sun shed in them. “Why shouldn’t I be?” she shot back.
“You weren’t calm that day,” Weston said, keeping his grip gentle but firm. “I couldn’t stand back and watch you walk into danger.”
She jerked at his hold. “Even so, any risk should have been my call–not yours. You knocked me unconscious and decided for me! Have you thought about my heart then? If Rowan and the crew hadn’t dragged her out, and I woke afterward to the news of her death?”
“I knew you’d me yourself,” Weston admitted, eyes steady. “You’d hate me, too. But I still wouldn’t change a thing.”
Laura’s breath caught. “You actually have zero regrets?”
“None,” he answered, voice quiet but unshakable. “I’m not some saint, Laura. I can’t stand by while someone I care about risks their life for another. I need you whole, I need you safe- nothing else will do.”