The Love I Begged For Was Never Real novel Chapter 136

Silence returned to the corridor.

Nora leaned against the freezing wall, her vision blurring entirely. The tears she had fought so hard to hold back finally spilled over uncontrollably.

The warm liquid hit the back of her hand, blossoming into damp stains.

She felt like an absolute joke. Just dozens of minutes ago, she actually believed their relationship was finally thawing. But reality had just delivered a brutal blow to her head, throwing her right back to where she started.

Franklin sighed. He walked over to Nora, pulled a clean packet of tissues from his pocket, and respectfully offered it to her.

"Ma'am, please wipe your tears."

Nora took the tissues with trembling hands and haphazardly wiped her wet face.

"Ma'am, please don't blame Mr. Hayes."

Watching Nora look so thoroughly shattered, Franklin's voice carried a heavy, weary helplessness. "Mr. Hayes... he simply cares too much about Giselle."

Nora clenched the tissue tightly, staying silent. So what if he cared? She had always known he cared about Giselle. But seeing those diaries with her own eyes, and directly facing the explosive rage he unleashed just to protect those old items—the impact was still soul-crushing.

She looked up at Franklin with red-rimmed eyes, her voice choked. "I just accidentally knocked over a box. He told me to get out, and he couldn't even bear to look at me for another second."

Franklin shook his head, a glimmer of distant memories flashing in his clouded eyes.

Franklin's voice trembled slightly. "The kidnappers locked them in an abandoned basement on the outskirts of the city for three days and three nights. They weren't given a single drop of water or a crumb of food."

The despairing image flashed through Nora's mind. Three days and three nights—for two children, it was nothing short of a living hell.

"Giselle was so young and frail. She developed a high fever and was on the verge of dying."

Franklin's own eyes reddened, his voice shaking. "To keep her alive, Mr. Hayes used a shard of glass to slit his own wrist and fed her his blood."

"By the time the ambulance arrived, Mr. Hayes had gone into shock from extreme blood loss, yet his arms were locked so tightly around Giselle that no one could pry them apart."

As Franklin's words faded, the hallway sank into a deathly silence.