?Chapter 508:


    “Does it hurt?” Wesley asked, his voice rough with barely contained emotion.


    Elena replied indifferently, “It’s alright.” She wouldn’t die from such a wound.


    Wesley immediately detected the detachment in her tone—a cold indifference toward her own physical suffering. What hardships had she endured to cultivate such stoicism? Some privileged youngdies would summon doctors for the slightest scratch on their fingers. Yet here she was, wounded like this, dismissing it with a mere, “It’s alright.” How could it not hurt?


    Wesley, a man who wouldn’t flinch when bullets tore through flesh, found his usually steady hands trembling as he treated Elena’s wound. His heart constricted with an unfamiliar ache of concern.


    The application of the ointment seemed to stretch into eternity before he finally finished. He retrieved a length of clean gauze to bind her wound. As the bandage circled around her back and approached the curve of her chest, Elena suddenly captured his hand in hers. “I’ll do it myself.”


    Wesley didn’t insist and handed her the gauze.


    Though she remained perched upon hisp, Wesley’s thoughts remained untainted by romantic notions. He simply assisted her in securing the bandage with a neat knot at her side.


    Elena pulled her clothing back into ce. Just as she prepared to shift her position, she found herself drawn back into his embrace.


    Wesley’s voice softened to a rare gentleness as he lowered his head—an uncharacteristic gesture of humility. “Don’t be angry, alright?”


    For a moment, Elena was dazed. Thismanding figure, whose mere nce could send tremors of fear through the most hardened souls—when had he ever humbled himself like this? His deep voice carried an unfamiliar tenderness, both maic and disarming in its sincerity.


    Elena hesitated for the briefest heartbeat before deliberately prying his hands away and exiting the car with resolute determination. Standing by the car door, she lowered her eyshes slightly,posing herself. “Thank you for your help today, Mr. Spencer. I owe you one. If you ever need anything, I’ll repay the favor.”


    If Wesley needed help, she would certainly repay him. But this wouldn’t change her decision. She could never respect a man who maintained a fiancée while pursuing other women with such brazen disregard. His actions only deepened the well of her contempt. Thus, she maintained her stern countenance, her tone deliberately frigid and distant.


    Wesley remained seated in the car, his body still curved forward, wrist suspended at his side—frozen in the abandoned gesture of embrace. His eyes flickered with a storm of emotions before settling into imprable silence. A cold, lowugh escaped him as he lowered hisshes, no longer deigning to look at her. She behaved as though any association with him was beneath her dignity.


    ???€?? ￠?αt?εяs 1n ga?n?νεl?.???


    Wesley had never before experienced such raw, unfiltered disdain directed at him. Since she so clearly desired distance between them, he would grant her precisely that wish.


    Elena closed the car door with quiet finality and returned to her own vehicle. Though her wound pulsed with a dull, persistent ache, she raised her hand to clutch at her chest.


    Having concluded his negotiations with the military, Felix spotted Elena exiting the car and swiftly returned to the driver’s seat.


    The moment Felix slid back into the vehicle, he sensed a shift in the atmosphere. Something was amiss. Hadn’t Wesley just parted ways with Elena? Yet somehow his mood seemed to have darkened even further.


    Felix ventured cautiously, “Mr. Spencer, the board meeting has been postponed. Are you heading to thepany now?”


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