The Year She Stopped Being Crazy for Him novel Chapter 254

Natalie lay in the chilly guest room bed, her misty eyes fixed on the ceiling.

The last time she had a high fever was a year ago.

Hassan had been away on a business trip in Country A. When she called him, it was the middle of the night in his time zone. Yet, aside from his voice being a bit raspy from sleep, he hadn't shown a shred of impatience.

He arranged everything for her right over the phone.

He wasn't scheduled to return until the next day, but he caught a flight and came back that very night.

People always said Hassan Carlson was cold-hearted, but she had stubbornly refused to believe it. She clung to his rare moments of kindness, deceiving herself into thinking she was special.

Looking back on it now, his lack of impatience was just his baseline personality. No matter what he felt, he rarely let his emotions show.

Having a doctor sent over was a problem he could solve with a single phone call.

As for rushing home early? He had probably just wrapped up his meetings abroad and needed to get back to deal with domestic affairs.

But when a young girl is in love, she tends to romanticize a man's most casual gestures. It was naive, sure, but entirely unavoidable.

Thinking about it all, Natalie's nose burned and tears welled in her eyes.

The love she had poured into him had been real. Her heart used to skip a beat at his thoughtfulness; she used to drown in the focused intensity of his gaze.

The dark, empty room seemed to magnify her profound loneliness. A tear slipped down her cheek, disappearing into her dark hair.

A small, damp patch darkened her pillow.

She brushed a fingertip over her wet eyelashes, feeling a surge of irritation. She didn't want to cry over Hassan anymore. But nighttime always made her sentimental, and once her emotions opened the floodgates, she couldn't shut them off.

Sitting up, she grabbed her phone, desperate for a distraction. She opened the mini-game she had been playing with Marvin during her lunch break.

One round in, she lost interest.

Checking the time, she saw it was 4:00 AM. A truly aggravating hour—too late to get a full night's sleep, but staying awake felt miserable.

Suddenly, a knock sounded at the door. Before she could fully turn around, a tall, dark silhouette stepped inside, stopping at the edge of her bed. The faint, bitter scent of medicine clung to the air.

He was holding a small box. Her mother's belongings.

Natalie knew Hassan had retrieved it a while ago, but she had never brought it up.

She had figured that since she was already relying on his family for her grandmother's surgery, she was swallowing enough indignity. She hadn't wanted to burden herself with another emotional chain.

Hassan placed the box gently on the edge of the bed. "Grandma said that with the boy moving in, you've been put in an unfair position. You haven't asked for anything to compensate, so... this is yours."

His voice was hoarse and completely drained of energy.

He set it down and walked out, leaving only that faint, medicinal bitterness lingering behind him.

Natalie sat cross-legged on the bed and turned on the reading lamp, staring at the box.

It was secured with a combination lock.

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