TRADING MY CHEATING HUSBAND FOR THE LYCAN KING novel Chapter 339

CHAPTER 267HOPE IS DESTRUCTIVE

CHAPTER 267: HOPE IS DESTRUCTIVE

EMBER’S POV

My heart twists in my chest.

Because of my mother, I always viewed my capacity to love, to forgive, and to unlearn as my absolute greatest flaw.

I hated being the kindest person in the room, because it usually meant being the first one taken advantage of.

But why should I bear the burden of other people’s cruelty? Why should I crush the one thing most of the world has entirely lost?

If there is one thing I know for certain now, it is that some people are worth the extra mile. They are worth the second chance, the kindness, and the forgiveness. It isn’t naivety anymore.

My heart finally knows the difference between shrinking down just to please others, and standing firm in my truest, kindest self.

“I don’t know what happened between you and Knox in Zürich,” I say. “He didn’t tell me and I didn’t ask, because whatever passed between you two belongs to you, not to me. But I know that something you said or did in those hours is the reason that man shifted on a tarmac and ran across a continent on four legs to come back for me. You told him about Rafael. You sounded the alarm when you could have stayed quiet and let whatever happened at the Bacchanal play out without lifting a finger.” I hold her gaze. “You did the right thing, Rayana. And I’m not trying to reward that/because it shouldn’t need rewarding. But I would never forgive myself if I stood by and let this be your ending without trying. Without doing everything in my power to change it.”

Rayana’s face crumples, and the crumpling is not graceful or dignified or anything resembling the

composed woman who was cracking jokes about Knox’s anatomy ten minutes ago.

This is the raw thing under, the scaffolding giving way.

“What could you possibly do, Ember?” Her voice is hoarse and thin and it cracks on my name. You have

DAYS I have days. The herbs that have been keeping my lips moving and my lungs filling are going to stop making a difference in forty–eight hours, maybe seventy two if I’m lucky, and I have never been lucky not once in my entire life I am not making it out of this week alive, and that is not pessimism, that is mathematics” She pulls at my hand, trying to free herself, and I hold tighter. Don’t waste your time 20 c You have a father in a coma who needs you and a man who just put a ning on your future and a well you don’t understand and a mother you need to find Pour yourself into THAT into things that have a chance Because if you pour yourself into me and it doesn’t work, it’s going to hurt twise as thech for everyone For you, for Knox, for Queenie, and for me most of all, because I will spend my last hours knowing het

someone love me just in time to leave her

I hold her hand firmer She pulls i don’t let go

CHAPTER 267 HOPE IS DESTRUCTIVE

“Ember, STOP—”

“No.”

“LET GO of my hand and listen to me

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“I’m listening. I’m listening and I’m not letting go and you can keep talking until your voice gives out and my answer will be the same.”

The sob that tears from Rayana is the ugliest, most deeply human sound she has ever made.

The break in her composure instantly triggers a coughing fit, and with the cough comes the blood. She

shoves a tissue to her mouth with one hand.

Her other hand grips mine, squeezing so hard her nails bite into my skin. Her shoulders tremble violently as the heart monitor’s tempo spikes.

Next to us, Queenie just cries, a hand pressed firmly over her mouth.

“Do you know what hope is?” Rayana chokes out between the coughing and the tears. “Do you have any

idea what you’re doing to me right now? Hope is the most addictive substance on this earth, Ember. More

addictive than the herbs, more destructive than anything Rafael ever put in a compound. I have been

HOPING for months. I hoped when they said six months. I hoped when the coughing started. I hoped

when the blood came and I told myself it was just irritation. I hoped every single morning when I opened

my eyes and thought maybe today the tests would come back different, maybe today the trajectory would

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