The Year She Stopped Being Crazy for Him novel Chapter 174

Eyes shot toward Natalie from all directions, filled with interrogation, suspicion, oppression, and sharpness.

And the person who had just told her she could rely on him a moment ago was gone.

He had rushed off in a panic for another woman.

Leaving her all alone.

Her heart shrank and throbbed with every inch, her breathing trembling with a bitter ache. Tears froze in her eyes; she lacked the strength to even offer a single word of explanation.

She was always the one neglected, the one left behind.

Amidst the joyous family banquet, Natalie was punished for a single photograph by being forced to kneel outside the ancestral hall.

The late autumn night offered no warmth. A crescent moon hung in the hazy sky, the darkness as thick as unyielding ink.

Her knees pressed against the carved stone slabs, the pain cutting to the bone, the cold making her violently shiver.

Natalie's gaze was unfocused, her mind completely empty.

She had called Hassan several times on her phone. She just wanted him to say a word on her behalf so Cecily would believe her. She was terrified that her grandmother would suffer because of this.

But he didn't answer a single one.

Between her and Gardenia, he always chose Gardenia without hesitation.

She had given him too much love, making him believe that no matter how many times he abandoned her, she would always love him just the same.

The carved patterns dug into the soft flesh of her knees, the hard edges pressing harshly against the bone. After half an hour, they grew numb and stiff, her blood flow feeling entirely blocked.

By the two-hour mark, her knees had lost all sensation, leaving only a piercing, dull ache seeping outward from the bone. Her calves were stiff and tingly, her toes icy cold. Even the slightest movement sent a sour ache through her waist and stomach.

After three hours of kneeling, the skin and flesh of her knees were completely deadened by the stone carvings. The cold had seeped into her very bones. She couldn't keep her back straight, her spine trembling uncontrollably. Her legs felt like lead, a chaotic mix of numbness and pain. When she finally tried to stand, she couldn't keep her balance; every inch of her bones throbbed with a weak, biting agony.

A maid helped her over to a gazebo to sit down, handed her a cup of hot water, and then lifted the hem of her skirt to apply medicine.

Natalie frowned in pain, her voice hoarse. "Who told you to come?"

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