He Lost Me to His Best Friend novel Chapter 756

She couldn't fathom why fate had to be so exceptionally cruel to them, throwing them into one devastating storm after another as some kind of sick joke.

Zachary's lips twitched into a faint smile. "I still have legs. Mechanical ones do the job just fine."

To prove his point, he pushed himself up from the chair and took a few steady strides across the room.

The utter heartbreak in her eyes finally began to thaw, replaced by a flicker of relief.

"You have no idea how I felt when Julian told me about your legs and everything you went through abroad. I wanted to grab a knife and hunt down Sean Bishop and Marilyn Langley myself! He could have just run off on his own. Why did he have to drag you into it and tear our family apart for so long?"

Bringing up the past reopened old wounds. She hated her biological father. She hated that aunt she had never even met. If it weren't for them, their lives wouldn't have been derailed like this.

"It's in the past."

Zachary's dark eyes held the detached calm of a man who had stared death in the face. He reached out and ruffled her hair again.

"Let's not dwell on the ugly stuff. Come here, look at the welcome gift I brought you. Let's see if you like it."

He leaned down, moving a bit stiffly, to lift a massive bouquet of sunflowers resting on the floor.

She could tell that even though the prosthetics helped him walk, they were still cumbersome and clearly not the same as real legs.

A wave of sorrow washed over her, and she hurried forward to help him lift the heavy arrangement.

As soon as she took it, she realized it weighed a ton—far more than standard flowers.

He lifted the tiara from the flowers and placed it carefully on her head.

She bit down hard on her lower lip, desperately fighting the emotional breakdown threatening to consume her. She didn't want him to see her cry, fighting to maintain her composure.

But Zachary saw right through her. She was just as sensitive and fragile on the inside as she was when she was a little girl.

"If you need to cry, just let it out. Don't hold it in."

"I know I always told you to be like a sunflower—standing tall and facing the light—but even sunflowers droop sometimes."

"You don't have to be strong in front of me."