Three Years Later, He Came Back Begging novel Chapter 253

Victor didn't press the issue and led Bonnie inside to eat. Bonnie couldn't handle spicy food, so she ordered a local pilaf. She forced down about half of it before she couldn't eat another bite.

"Head back to the car, miss. I'm going to grab some cold medicine from the pharmacy next door for our buddy. Catching a bug in Hvitland in this freezing weather is bad news."

Bonnie nodded, her appreciation for Victor growing. The locals here were incredibly warm and outgoing. They might look tough and rugged, but they were deeply attentive and caring.

She walked back to the car. The second she opened the door, she heard violent, suppressed coughing that shook the entire passenger seat. It was obvious how much agony he was in.

Bonnie lowered her eyes, grabbed a bottle of water from the back seat, and offered it over the center console.

Lawrence turned his head and stared at the bottle, freezing in place. It felt like he waged an agonizing psychological war within himself, though in reality, less than a second had passed.

Without turning fully around, his gloved hand reached out, trembling violently. He took the bottle and forced down the unbearable itch in his throat to whisper, "Thank you."

For some reason, Bonnie thought he sounded almost overwhelmingly flattered. It only reinforced her feeling that there was something undeniably bizarre about this man.

A heavy awkwardness settled in the air.

Thankfully, Victor quickly returned with flu powder and ibuprofen, tossing them into the console for whoever needed them. Lawrence knew his problem wasn't a cold. The intense medical treatments he was enduring triggered severe somatic reactions. Sometimes, out of nowhere, he would be hit by blinding headaches, crushing chest tightness, palpitations, and an uncontrollable urge to violently dry heave and cough.

His throat had been the first thing to go. In the beginning, he couldn't keep his pills down and threw up constantly, which had completely wrecked his vocal cords, leaving him with this harsh rasp.

Even so, he took the medicine, muttered his thanks, and swallowed down a packet of the flu powder, washing it down with the water Bonnie had given him.

When they arrived at the sunset viewing spot, Victor parked in the lot and pointed them in the right direction. Dozens of tourists were already scrambling up the nearby snowy hillside.

Bonnie was exactly the same now. Even though she was traveling completely alone, she didn't look bored for a single second. She was lively and glowing. She'd reach out to help other girls pull themselves up the slippery slope, and when someone helped her, she’d flash a bright smile and thank them.

He thought back to the dark period after their breakup when she hadn't yet moved on. In the countless unreturned photos she used to send him, she had been just like this—traveling alone, traversing through so many different places.

She was organized and purposeful. She was constantly growing, becoming braver, more independent, and incredibly resilient. With every step she took, she was moving forward.

Only he remained hopelessly trapped in place, making zero progress, suffocating in an endless, inescapable maze.

Every direction he turned was a dead end.

These were the things Bonnie had long left in the past—her affection, her deep love, her longing, her resentment, her hatred, her forgetting... Everything had become a stubborn, tangled knot inside him that he simply could not undo.