The Ex-Wife's Burning Elegance novel Chapter 1953

Her tears slipped over his fingertips, searing his skin like drops of scalding oil, burning straight through to his heart.

Overcome, he pulled her into a desperate embrace.

Stella crashed against his chest, her weight pressing directly against his fresh cuts, but he didn't feel a shred of pain—only a sick, twisted sense of satisfaction.

The deeper the physical sting, the more it soothed the agonizing ache in his chest.

Realizing she had slammed into his wounds, Stella gasped and shoved at his shoulders.

"Joshua, let go!"

But his arms only clamped down harder, holding her as if trying to fuse their very bones together, permanently etching her into his flesh.

"I'm sorry, Star," he murmured, his voice a gravelly whisper against her hair. "I can't let you go."

Even if it left him bleeding and broken, he would never release her.

Drained of the strength to fight, Stella closed her eyes and sagged against his solid frame.

The metallic scent of blood hung heavy in the air, and she had never felt more utterly powerless.

...

Outside, the night was pitch-black and suffocatingly silent.

After carefully applying antiseptic and bandages to his chest, Stella snapped the first-aid kit shut and looked up at him.

"It doesn't hurt," he offered quietly. "I know my limits."

A cold, humorless smile touched the corners of her lips.

"Am I supposed to applaud your precision with a blade?"

"..."

Stella stared him down, finally speaking the words she had been dreading. "Joshua, we're doing the hypnosis."

He held her gaze, his dark eyes resembling a bottomless abyss.

"Do you even understand what that means? I will forget you. I'll forget every single thing we've built."

Stella didn't blink. "If what you feel for me is real, then even if you forget, you'll just fall in love with me all over again."

"And if I wake up and don't care about you?" he challenged softly. "If I never fall in love with you again... are you still going to force this procedure?"

That's why I only deal with the present, not some hypothetical future."

A tremor wracked Stella's frame.

Laurel Quinn had warned her that a successful session required locking away the last two years entirely.

Selectively erasing just his triggers was impossible; Joshua was far too brilliant and would immediately spot the holes in his own mind.

He would inevitably realize he was missing twenty-four months of his life.

But Laurel planned to simply tell him he had suffered a severe relapse and required a hard reset.

Without any emotional tethers left, a man as calculating as Joshua wouldn't bother digging into the void, knowing it could trigger another breakdown.

That was why every single memory of Stella had to die.

His voice pulled her back to the harsh reality of the dimly lit study.

"In the past, I didn't care enough about anything to mind if it got wiped away. But not this time. This matters to me."

He leaned in, his gaze predatory and fiercely possessive. "I will not let anyone rip you from my mind. And I won't let you do it either."