The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 456

Garrison dropped to his knees beside Sloane.

His shoulders were locked, his expression intensely focused to the point of absolute ruthlessness, but his usually steady hands were visibly trembling.

Sloane's heart and lungs might not be able to withstand the brutal pressure of CPR. But if he didn't do it... she would asphyxiate in minutes!

He had to risk it.

Garrison sucked in a sharp breath, stacked his palms over her sternum, and began the compressions.

He couldn't push too hard, but he couldn't hold back either. He had to perfectly calibrate the force—hard enough to force her heart to restart, but gentle enough to avoid shattering her fragile internal organs.

On the fifth compression, a stream of dark crimson blood spilled from the corner of Sloane's mouth, trailing down her pale cheek.

The blood dripped onto The Obsidian Charm resting against her collarbone, staining the dark gemstone a terrifying, violent red.

That flash of red felt like a knife plunging straight into Josh's eyes.

The surrounding crowd gasped in horror.

"What's happening? Why is she throwing up blood?" a girl shrieked.

A tall guy lunged forward, reaching out to yank Garrison's arm away.

"Do you even know how to do CPR?! Are you pressing too hard? You're going to kill her!"

"Yeah, move away! Let Professor Jace do it!"

"Stop it! Can't you see she's bleeding?!" someone else yelled. The crowd grew hysterical, surging forward. Phones were pulled out to record, and panicked voices screamed asking if the ambulance was here yet.

Garrison didn't stop. His hands drove into her chest with mechanical, unwavering precision, not missing a single beat. The second the guy's hand brushed his arm, Garrison snapped his head up, his gaze slicing through the crowd like a physical blade.

He had convinced himself that after five years, her body had healed. That they could start over. But the damage had never gone away!

Garrison's medical reports had explicitly stated it in black and white. Josh had read it with his own eyes: *Strictly forbidden from entering the water!*

How... how could he have forgotten?!

He had just stood there and let her dive into that freezing lake. He had let her exhaust every ounce of her strength pushing Piper to safety, only to sink back into the dark depths all alone...

Behind him, Piper staggered to her feet.

Clutching someone's borrowed coat around her trembling shoulders, she stumbled barefoot over the freezing cobblestones. Step by agonized step, she made it to Sloane and dropped heavily to her knees.

She stared at Sloane's bloodless lips. Watched her lie there on the cold stone, utterly lifeless like a broken doll.

And she saw the blood smearing her favorite Obsidian Charm...