Love Beyond the Mask novel Chapter 1164

Whitney wiped away her tears, trying to hold it together. Right now, she had no room in her heart for anything else—she just wanted him to make it through.

Bryce Florence, old grudges, past betrayals—none of that mattered anymore. Not with his life hanging in the balance.

He wasn’t worth dying for, not really. Not when it came down to it.

Whitney stood frozen outside the operating room for a whole hour. Not a sound from inside. Her legs felt like dead weight, her body drained and shaky. Finally, she collapsed onto a chair, exhausted.

She was the only one in the hallway. Everyone she cared about was scattered across the hospital in different rooms.

Tonight was going to be a long, lonely night.

Her thoughts drifted to the little baby she’d just helped save. Sammy had said Ludwik had given her a nickname—Little Pumpkin. He’d told his son, “Your sister’s real name, that’s up to your mom.”

Whitney stared at the operating room doors, her eyes filling again. She whispered, “I did everything I could to save the baby. Now it’s your turn—wake up from this surgery, okay? Come pick her name yourself.”

She remembered how angry she’d been with him, how she’d hated him when things were at their worst. And in the middle of all that, she’d secretly gotten pregnant.

Then, after she found out, he kept it from her—and the baby had vanished.

He’d fought so hard to find their daughter again. “Ludwik, if you don’t wake up and take care of her, I won’t either,” she grumbled, even though he couldn’t hear her through those operating room doors.

It was a silly threat, and she knew it. But she wanted to believe he could hear her. She needed him to fight, to survive. That bullet to his stomach could take him away forever, and the thought made her chest ache.

Trying to keep her mind busy, she called the NICU to check on her daughter’s condition after the surgery. She had to know how the little one was doing.

She barely got a word out before Danny grabbed the phone.