The Love I Begged For Was Never Real novel Chapter 352

She instinctively tried to turn her head, wanting to see if it was Nora.

But then.

The Shadowy Assailant lunged at her back, reached out with both hands, aimed squarely at her thin frame, and shoved forward with every ounce of strength.

Giselle's eyes flew wide open. She parted her lips to scream in sheer terror, but no sound escaped her throat.

Her entire body flipped over the roof's railing, plummeting toward the endless darkness below.

The moment The Shadowy Assailant succeeded, he seemed to catch a glimpse of Giselle's face in the pale light. He trembled violently, stumbled back in a panic, turned, and vanished into the shadows of the roof.

Giselle reached out into the void, her fingers splayed in pure desperation as she tried to grasp the starry sky that was rapidly pulling away from her.

The intense sensation of weightlessness shocked her brain into a brief moment of absolute clarity.

Countless images flashed rapidly before her eyes.

The dark, damp, abusive corner of St. Jude’s Children’s Home.

Wearing ill-fitting, worn-out clothes, her stomach aching from hunger because she couldn't fight for food, shrinking in the corner and crying endlessly.

She saw the roaring, majestic European fireplace in The Hayes Manor.

Silas Hayes sitting in his grand mahogany armchair, rubbing the top of her head with calloused hands, his voice authoritative yet laced with affection as he told her that this was her home now, and the Hayes family would protect her for the rest of her life.

And finally, Gideon's face.

The thin, battered, scarred teenage boy who had reached his hand out to her in the mud of the orphanage.

That was Gideon.

He was wearing a crisp white shirt, standing in the sunlight, giving her the gentlest smile.

He rubbed her hair with his broad palm and told her, don't be afraid, Giselle. I will always protect you.

That was the beginning of all her pride and happiness. Gideon had held her in the palm of his hand and spoiled her for almost twenty years, giving her the world on a silver platter.

But why... why did Nora have to force her way into the family that was supposed to belong only to the two of them?

Why did Nora have to use Silas Hayes's will as leverage to snatch the title of Mrs. Hayes? Why did she have to scheme and divide the attention and special treatment that Gideon had reserved solely for her?

Tears burst from her eyes, flying upward from the corners and dissipating into the vicious night wind.

She had lost her parents at a young age, and it was Gideon who gave her a home.

Save me.

"Bang—!"

She crashed heavily onto the ground.

The fingers resting by her side twitched once, and then all signs of life ceased.

The phone that had slipped from her hand lay silently on the edge of the expanding pool of blood.

The screen was shattered into a spiderweb of cracks from the impact, yet it stubbornly continued to glow.

The faint light illuminated a small patch of the dark pavement.

The call interface was still running.

Right above the green dial icon, the text clearly read:

Dialing...

[Gideon]