Please Come Back, My Love novel Chapter 120

Chapter 120

Elena: POV

His voice reached me through layers of fog.

“I meant what I said. I’ll let you go. I’ll sign the divorce papers. I’ll give you whatever you need money, the apartment in the city, whatever. I won’t follow you. I won’t-I won’t try to control you anymore.”

I didn’t move. Didn’t blink. Just kept staring at that crack in the wall-the one I’d been staring at for hours. It branched out like a broken tree, splitting into

smaller fractures that disappeared into the corner.

Funny how something so small could hold your attention when everything else was falling apart.

“Elena.” His hand touched my shoulder. Gentle. Tentative. Like I was made of glass that might shatter at any moment.

Maybe I was.

“Please say something.”

What’s left to say?

The words sat heavy in my throat, but I couldn’t push them out. It was easier to just.., exist. To breathe in, breathe out, and count the seconds between each

breath.

“I know you hate me. His voice cracked. “I know I’ve destroyed everything. But I’m trying to fix it. I’m trying to give you what you want.”

You can’t fix the dead, Julian.

Our baby was gone. That tiny heartbeat we’d heard on the ultrasound-thump-thump-thump, fast and strong-silenced forever. Because I’d run. Because I’d been scared. Because I’d thought he wanted to take it away from me.

And maybe he had. Maybe he hadn’t.

It didn’t matter anymore.

Nothing mattered.

“Elena, please.” The bed dipped as he moved closer. His hand slid down my arm, over the fresh bandages Blake had wrapped around my wrists. Talk to me. Yell at me. Hit me. Do something. Just don’t-don’t disappear like this.”

But I’m already gone.

I’d left the moment I woke up in that hospital bed and realized my stomach was empty. That the weight-the presence-I’d carried for sixteen weeks was just… nothing.

Gone.

Like it had never existed at all.

3:03 pm

Chapter 120

When you’re feeling better, Julian said quietly, “when you’ve healed a bit more-we’ll go to City Hall. We’ll file the papers.”

“No. The word came out barely above a whisper. “Tomorrow.”

He went still beside me. “Elena-

“Tomorrow,” I repeated, and even that small effort left me breathless.

“You can barely sit up without getting dizzy.” His hand found my hip, thumb tracing gentle circles. “You’ve barely moved since Blake left last night. Just give

it a few more days-”

‘I don’t need a few more days. Each word felt like pulling teeth. “I need… I need to leave.”

“Baby, you can’t even make it to the bathroom without my help. How are you going to-

“I don’t care.” My eyes burned, but I was too dehydrated to cry. “I’ll crawl there if I have to. I just… I can’t stay here anymore.”

Silence. Heavy and suffocating.

‘One more week,” he tried again, desperate. “Just give me one more week. Let yourself get stronger-”

“No. My hand clutched weakly at the sheets. “Tomorrow. Please.”

The ‘please’ broke something in him. I heard it in the sharp intake of his breath.

“You can barely keep food down. You’ve barely eaten since-

“I know.” My voice was barely audible. “I know I’m weak. I know I’m… broken. But I can’t breathe here, Julian. Every corner of this place reminds me of her. Of what we lost.” The words came out in fragments. “I need to leave before this place kills me too.”

“Don’t say that.” His hand tightened on my hip. “Please don’t say that.”

“Tomorrow,” I whispered again, my eyelids growing heavy. “We go tomorrow. Or I’ll drag myself there alone.”

It was an empty threat. We both knew I couldn’t even make it to the front door by myself. But the desperation in my voice must have convinced him.

“Okay,” he finally breathed out, defeat heavy in his voice. “Tomorrow. I’ll carry you if I have to.”

He probably would have to..

His lips brushed my temple-so soft, so gentle, like I might shatter at the slightest touch.

Maybe I would.

“Sleep, he whispered against my skin. “Please, baby. Just sleep.”

Sleep.

But what was the point of sleeping when you’d already lost everything that mattered?

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Chapter 120

MA

The darkness swallowed me whole..

Hours later, I woke to sunlight streaming through the curtains, bright and offensive. My wrists throbbed with each heartbeat-alive, alive, you’re still alive-

and I wanted to laugh at the irony.

I’d tried so hard to stop that beating. To make it all just… stop.

And I’d failed at that too.

“Elena

Julian sat in the chair beside the bed, still wearing yesterday’s blood-stained shirt. His hair was a mess, dark circles shadowing his eyes.

He looked like shit.

Good.

“I made coffee,” he said. ‘And toast. You need to eat something before we go.

I stared at him. At this man I’d loved for sixteen years. This beautiful, broken thing that had destroyed me so completely I couldn’t even remember what it felt like to be whole.

“I’m not hungry.”

“Elena-

“I said I’m not hungry.”

Eye me dy

My voice came out flat. Dead. And something flickered in his eyes-pain, maybe, or fear-but I couldn’t bring myself to care.

He stood slowly, walked to the closet and pulled out a simple black dress.

“Here.” He laid it on the bed beside me. “Take your time getting dressed. We’ll leave whenever you’re ready.”

I watched him leave. Heard his footsteps retreat down the hallway until they disappeared completely.

The drive to City Hall was silent.

Julian kept both hands on the steering wheel, knuckles white with tension. His jaw was tight, muscle twitching like he was grinding his teeth.

I sat in the passenger seat and stared out the window. Watched Manhattan blur past-all glass and steel and people rushing to places that mattered.

God, when had I become so fucking hollow?

“Elena.”

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3:03 pm

Chapter 120

I did! respond:

“Are you sure about this?

Was I sure?

Was I sure I wanted to end this nightmare of a marriage? This cage I’d built around tayself because I was too stupid to realize love wasn’t supposed to hurt

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