He Never Loved Me Until the Day I Finally Left Him novel Chapter 840

And then, she smiled.

A heartbreakingly faint, resigned smile.

Helena's mind snapped.

She knew exactly what that look meant.

Skye had always understood the grim reality of her illness.

She never wanted to be a burden to those she loved.

In this horrific moment, Skye was begging Helena to leave because she had already accepted her own death.

Helena would rather burn the world down than agree.

'Run!' Skye mouthed again, her desperation evident.

The kidnapper advanced a step closer to the dying girl.

A suffocating wave of despair and fury crushed Helena's chest.

Skye's breathing was shallowing into nothingness.

Helena remained rooted to the spot.

In that suffocating deadlock, a gunshot shattered the night.

The kidnapper aimed his weapon directly at Skye.

Julian and Lance had flanked the perimeter, violently breaching the standoff.

The kidnappers realized they were surrounded.

In a panicked frenzy, the man pulled the trigger.

"No!" Helena screamed, her voice tearing her throat.

Without a single thought for her own life, she threw herself directly into the line of fire.

She would gladly take a bullet before she let Skye suffer another moment of pain.

She owed this little girl everything.

"Helena!"

"No!" Sebastian and Julian roared in unison.

Julian raised his weapon, executing a lethal, precision shot at the gunman.

Sebastian vaulted forward toward Helena, while Lance sprinted frantically toward Skye.

But Helena was already there.

She tackled Skye to the dirt, curling her body tightly around the fragile child.

The bullet tore viciously into Helena's flesh.

"Helena!" Skye shrieked in absolute terror.

The little girl's ankle was shattered from the two-story drop.

Combined with the sheer trauma of the gunfire, her heart gave a violent, agonizing spasm.

She was rapidly losing the ability to breathe.

Back on the road, Sebastian laid Helena carefully across the backseat of his car.

Julian had already coordinated an emergency rendezvous with paramedics.

The cars tore through the night like rockets.

An ambulance met them halfway on the highway.

A few miles down the road, they executed a rapid transfer.

The bullet was lodged deeply in Helena's chest; it narrowly missed her heart, but her condition was critical.

Worse still, when she had dived to shield Skye, her head had slammed violently against a jagged rock, and she was hemorrhaging from the skull.

Skye was rushed into a separate ambulance.

Her medical history was a minefield; only Julian and Lance knew the exact protocols.

They quickly debriefed the paramedics while simultaneously alerting Skye's primary specialists.

Halfway to the hospital, Helena's eyelids fluttered open.

"Skye..." It was the only word she could whisper.

Sebastian instantly understood her terror.

"She's safe. I won't let her die. You have my word," Sebastian vowed softly, his voice trembling with an emotion he couldn't hide.

Whether it was the comfort of his promise or her body finally surrendering to the trauma, Helena's eyes rolled back.

She slipped back into a deep, terrifying coma.