Against Cruelty, She Grew Strong (by Anastasia Glover) novel Chapter 618

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Chapter 618 Cruel Realities

Every single time she looked at Lucas, she would involuntarily space out for a second. But other than that temporary lapse, she was completely fine..

Lucas let out a helpless chuckle. “Seeing you look at me like that almost makes me think you still care about me.”

“Are you out of your mind?” she snapped.

“Yeah,” he murmured. “Just a joke.”

“Is there really no chance of a cure?”

Lucas’s expression turned serious, and he began explaining the precise details of his diagnosis.

He didn’t hide a single thing from her.

The brain tumor had actually been discovered three months ago.

When the initial test results came back, he had still held onto a shred of optimism. While a resection of this nature was incredibly high risk, it wasn’t completely impossible. The tumor just needed to be cut out.

He immediately contacted several world-renowned neurological hospitals to lock down the best surgeons for the job.

But the exact second the high-definition scans were distributed, not a single doctor dared to take on the

surgery.

The tumor was located way too deep.

Objectively speaking, a surgery simply wasn’t viable.

An elite colleague who shared a close personal relationship with him had flatly told him to give up on the idea. The surgeon argued that if he skipped the operating room entirely, he could at least preserve his immediate timeline. Consenting to a resection meant he would likely die right there on the table, which was a completely losing gamble.

Faced with those numbers, he took a long leave of absence.

He handed over every single piece of company business back to the Lund family, walking away without a single shred of regret.

The moment a life enters its final countdown, a person truly begins to see through the white noise of their own heart. Every single ambition he had fiercely chased across his career was exposed as a hollow illusion

A solitary, unyielding thought remained in his mind.

He just wanted to see her.

He needed to see Tammy.

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Chapte

mmy.” Lacas murtured, his eyes locking onto her profile. “Does the promise you made yesterday still

stand?”

Tammy looked away, completely avoiding the intense, gentle warmthin his eyes as she hesitated: “Can I take it back?”

“You can,” he replied softly. “I don’t want to force you into anything that makes you feel miserable.

Yet the more he stepped back, the less Tammy had the heart to walk away.

“Fine. I don’t go back on my word.”

“In that case, can you accompany me to a specific place today?”

“Where?”

“The zoo.”

Was this guy completely out of his mind?

And she was just as crazy for actually agreeing to go with him!

By the time the two of them boarded the zoo’s open-concept safari tram, Tammy’s expression was still incredibly sour.

“Here.”

Lucas slid a cold cup of cola into her hand, trying to smooth over her dark mood.

“Don’t be mad. If you really hate this itinerary so much, you’ll just have to bear with it for the rest of the ride.”

“The tickets cost a fortune, so we can’t let them go to waste.”

Tammy shot back with a biting sneer, “As if a single loss would leave á bankrupt wretch like you starving to death.”

Lucas immediately dropped his posture, putting on a thoroughly pathetic, miserable face. “I am actually on the brink of starvation.”

He was telling the absolute truth about his finances.

He hadn’t taken a single dollar from the Lund family reserves before cutting ties, arriving in this territory as a completely detached individual with zero assets to his name.

“I have plenty of money,” Tammy stated, her posture turning intensely proud. Tatiana had given her an absolute fortune, more than she could ever spend.

She didn’t care about buying luxury goods, meaning she barely spent a dime, leaving the entire volume under Tatiana’s management.

Tatiana had explicitly promised her that she would never have to worry about money for the rest of her life.

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Chapter Ale Cruci

Xavier routinely joked that she was a little billionaire in her own right.

“I don’t want your money, keep your savings locked away securely, Locas replied gently.

“Then what do you want? Don’t people facing death usually have a massive bucket list of unfulfilled desires?”

Lucas paused, thinking it over carefully before offering a quiet response. “I suppose my only wish is to make amends.”

“An amends? For what exactly are you trying to clean”

The question died instantly in her throat, cutting off with absolute finality.

What other mistake could he possibly be talking about?

She looked away, staring past the steel mesh toward the open horizon. “There’s no point in bringing that up.”

“For me, there is.”

She pulled back her hostile armor, choosing not to strike his defenses any further.

The safari tram was completely packed with tourists from all over the world, everyone arriving to explore the parameters of the world’s largest open-concept wildlife reserve.

The transport was reinforced with heavy steel wire mesh, a design choice that guaranteed basic safety while allowing passengers to interact directly with the animals.

The tourists were actively encouraged to feed the wildlife.

The initial sections of the track were dominated entirely by herbivores, featuring towering giraffes, zebras. and massive elephants.

Every single civilian on board had purchased a portion of feed thoroughly enjoying the simple interaction with the animals. The children on board were especially having the time of their lives.

r

Lucas gathered a handful of grass from the storage barrel, extending it toward her grip. “Here. Want to give it a try?”

She took the bundle and threw it right back into his lap.

The light vanished from Lucas’s eyes instantly, a wave of disappointment settling over his features. “I’m sorry, I overstepped again, forcing you to do something you hate”

“Zebras hate that specific type of grass; making them eat it causes severe bloating,” Tammy cut him off, her tone full of natural authority. “Use this kind instead. This is the one they actually like.”

Tammy reached deep into the baseline storage barrel, meticulously sorting through the contents until she pulled out a precise handful of wild grasses.

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