Even in Darkness She Chose to Rise (Tatiana and Jasper) novel Chapter 177

**Even the Night Couldn’t Silence Her Light**
**Chapter 177: Don’t Hit Me**

“Don’t hit me, don’t hit me…”

Her voice trembled with fear, each word a desperate plea that echoed in the dimly lit room.

“No one is going to hit you. It’s okay,” he reassured her, his tone soothing, though his heart raced with anxiety.

He reached out, intending to comfort her, but as his hand neared, she reacted instinctively, slapping it away with a force that startled him.

“Don’t touch me!”

For a fleeting moment, a wave of panic washed over him as he feared she had regained her memories. The blood drained from his face, leaving him pale and breathless.

Yet, in the next heartbeat, she lunged forward, her arms wrapping tightly around him. “Jasper! It hurts! It hurts so much?”

Her voice was filled with anguish, each word laced with a pain that pierced through him. The doctor had warned him about the aftereffects of her brain trauma—how they could trigger her regression, potentially bringing forth fragmented memories from her past.

He took a deep breath, trying to navigate the tumultuous waters of her mind. “Tatiana, who’s hitting you?”

As he held her, he felt her body tremble violently against his. After a long, agonizing pause, she murmured, as though trapped in a fog of confusion, “It’s… it’s Bianca!”

Time seemed to freeze as they both processed the name.

Jasper’s shock was palpable. At this stage in her recovery, Tatiana should have had no recollection of Bianca.

Tatiana appeared equally stunned. Her eyes were vacant, her mouth moving soundlessly as she struggled to articulate her thoughts. “A lot of people… in long white robes… they’re so scary… It hurts, they keep hitting me, it hurts so much… I kept yelling… for Mom and Dad, for my brother, and… and for you… but no one came to save me… sob… no one…”

Jasper snapped back to the present, enveloping her in his arms, holding her as if he could shield her from the horrors of her past.

If he wasn’t mistaken, she was recalling fragments of her time in that dreadful rehab center.

He didn’t know the specifics, only the scant details that were scribbled in her file. But witnessing the raw terror in her eyes made it painfully clear that those four years had been nothing short of hellish.

“I’m so sorry. I’ll never send you back there,” he vowed, his voice barely above a whisper.

If misunderstanding her had been the greatest regret of his life, then sending her to that center was a close second.

Tatiana sobbed in his embrace for what felt like an eternity, her body shaking with the weight of her emotions until, slowly, she began to calm.

Once the silence settled, he cautiously returned to his earlier question. “Why did you mention Bianca? Do you know her?”

Her head shook vehemently before a hesitant nod followed. “I’ve heard of her… a bad person!”

His expression shifted, curiosity mingling with concern. “Why?”

“She… she was with the white-robed people! She told them… to hit me! It hurt so, so much! And she smiled, and she said… said…”

“Said what?” he pressed, urgency creeping into his voice.

A shiver ran through her, fear evident as she shrank into herself, stammering, “She… she came a lot. Every time… I would get hit. And the electric thing! It hurt so much… She made the white-robed people… take off my clothes… sob… I was so scared…”

The mention of that last part ignited a fury within Jasper. “Take off your clothes?”

Tatiana nodded vigorously, her eyes wide with fear.

“Why?” he asked, his voice dangerously low, barely able to contain his rage.

Tatiana, lying in his arms, remained blissfully unaware of the storm brewing within him, the way his face contorted with anger, or the darkness flooding his eyes.

She shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I don’t know… I was scared… sob… She said… she was going to have a baby, and then Jasper wouldn’t want me… I don’t want to have a baby… Don’t leave me…”

In that instant, a chilling realization struck him.

Bianca had been visiting the center, likely orchestrating some sinister arrangement with the director. She had commanded others to assault Tatiana, to manipulate her into a vulnerable state, perhaps even to get her pregnant.

It was a simple yet devastating scheme, one that could utterly shatter a person’s spirit. Given his past misunderstandings and disdain for Tatiana, if he had discovered her pregnant during her time in that hellhole, his first instinct would have been to assume the worst—that she had betrayed him. His hatred would have only deepened.

The thought of her fate spiraling further into darkness made him clench his fists in anger.

“Fuck,” he cursed under his breath, the word heavy with emotion. He slammed his fist into the wall, the pain of his knuckles splitting open grounding him in the present.

**Chapter 178: Never Again**