The Last Time I Cried Your Name novel Chapter 449

Franco stepped closer to the bed and picked up the half-empty bowl of porridge from the nightstand.

"Are you physically okay?"

Petty's voice made his hand freeze over the bowl.

He casually picked up the spoon, scooping up some porridge and holding it toward her lips. "I'm fine."

"That's good," she murmured, whether to Franco or to herself, it was hard to tell. "That's good."

She didn't take a bite of the food Franco offered. Instead, she looked up at him. Her eyes were red and swollen, and the look she gave him held no concern—only a deeper, more profound hatred than before.

She suddenly clenched her jaw. Tears spilled from her reddened eyes, and her suppressed voice came out raspy and bitter. "I'm not asking because I care. I'm asking because I don't want to owe you. I don't want to owe you a single thing."

"You never have to feel like you owe me for anything I do." Franco set the spoon back into the bowl and reached out to wipe the tears from her cheek.

The second his fingers brushed her skin, she flinched violently, swatting his hand away. "Of course I don't owe you!"

It was as if an invisible, tightly coiled string between them suddenly snapped.

Though Franco's hand was knocked away, he smoothly caught her wrist, wrapping his large palm around her hand.

Two of his fingers slipped between hers, locking them together in an iron grip.

His gaze locked onto hers. His deep, predatory eyes were sharp and probing, his voice rough. "What do you mean by that?"

"We never officially got married," Petty's throat tightened, her red-rimmed eyes trembling. "It was because you were terrified I would remember what happened five years ago. Terrified I would actually kill myself. Right?"

Five years ago!

Franco's pupils contracted sharply, his grip on her hand instantly tightening.

Images from the island flashed through his mind—her driving the yacht straight into the raging storm, the boat capsizing, her plummeting into the freezing ocean.

A hairline fracture seemed to form deep within his eyes, shattering completely as his breathing hitched.

His tight, strained voice demanded, "What did you say?"

Petty looked up at him. The agonizing despair had completely numbed her features. Her eyes were blurred with tears, and her lips curled into a bitter, devastating smile. The tears fell relentlessly, like a broken string of pearls.

"Ha."

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