The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 541

A beat of silence hung inside the apartment before a soft, detached laugh filtered through the intercom—a sigh of absolute closure.

"None of that matters anymore." Sloane leaned her back against the door, looking down at the tips of her plush slippers.

"When I married you, it was entirely by choice. I... I really did love you once." She paused, her voice smoothing out into chilling indifference. "But that's in the past."

A brutal, twisting cramp seized Garrison's stomach.

It felt as if someone had reached inside and was wringing his organs like a wet towel. He doubled over, resting his forehead heavily against the freezing metal of the door. His right hand clawed desperately at his abdomen, his voice barely more than a shattered, breathless rasp.

"But... I still love you!"

"For the past five years, there hasn't been a single day where I didn't think about you. Not a single day where I didn't hate myself. If I hadn't completely misjudged you, if I had just noticed you were sick sooner, if I hadn't turned a blind eye to the hell my family put you through..."

"That's your burden to carry, Garrison. It's not my problem anymore."

Sloane's voice carried an impenetrable wall of frost.

"I accepted my fate five years ago. When I stepped onto that frozen lake, I fully intended to die. I never expected to survive—no, you forced me to live. But fine. Since fate dragged me back to this point, I accept it. What I won't accept are your feelings. Do you understand, Garrison? I have absolutely nothing left for you."

"You... you say you feel nothing? But just a few days ago, you were sitting by my hospital bed! You held my hand and begged me not to die! You said we were going to finish Vitas-1 together! Was... was all of that a lie?!"

"Enough!"

A hairline fracture finally cracked through Sloane's composure. "What do you want from me, Garrison?"