The Love I Begged For Was Never Real novel Chapter 482

The heat radiating from his body seeped into her continuously. It was as if, as long as he was there, the raging storm outside couldn't touch her, and his broad shoulders could block out all her fears.

Nora leaned against his chest, quietly feeling this sanctuary that had arrived years too late.

Her eyes were hollow and dead, staring straight ahead at the dim wall.

The corners of her chapped lips slowly curved upward, pulling into a smile filled with profound sorrow and irony.

"Gideon."

"I stopped being afraid of thunder a long time ago."

Many years ago, she truly had been terrified of it.

Back then, on those stormy, lightning-filled nights.

Eight-year-old Nora used to hide under the freezing blankets of the orphanage, shivering uncontrollably.

Sixteen-year-old Nora used to hide in the pitch-black bedroom of the Xavier estate, fantasizing that her guardian angel would appear once more to shield her.

And on countless rainy nights, she had stood in the living room of their villa, watching him walk out on her without a second glance.

She had prayed endlessly that someone would be there on those terrifying, stormy nights to hold her tight and tell her, "Don't be afraid, I'm here."

She had once clutched her phone, filled with hope, desperately wishing Gideon would call her, wishing for just a single word of comfort, or even dreaming that he would push open the door and walk to her side.

But no one ever answered her prayers.

Back then, he was never by her side.

He was either working late at the office or keeping someone else company at the estate or the hospital.

He never cared that she was afraid of the storms, and he had never once offered her so much as a phone call to soothe her fears.

To survive that bone-deep loneliness, to stop making herself look so pathetic and laughable, Nora forced herself to get used to the thunder.

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