Trouble in Paradise (Arianna and Nicholas) novel Chapter 539

I stayed silent, feeling dizzy the moment Nicholas held my hand. The words I didn't want to hear, the topics I tried to avoid, slipped so easily from his lips.

"Ariana, I truly didn't know you were carrying our child. I thought the baby was gone back in the hospital..."

His Adam's apple moved as he struggled to speak, his tone thick with emotion.

"Otherwise, even if I relapsed and felt like dying, I would have come and died right there at your and Tabitha's feet."

His hold was almost painful, cutting off the circulation in my hand. I knew the moment he let go, my entire arm would tingle with numbness.

Nicholas asked in a restrained tone, "Ariana, did you ever think of me over these years?"

It felt as if my body were being torn apart, the pain overwhelming and unbearable.

Yes, I had desperately thought of him on the delivery bed. When Tabitha and I were both on the brink, I wished with all my strength to see him just once more. The fear that I wouldn't make it overwhelmed me—I needed to see him one last time.

I had clung to life, hoping he would be outside the operating room. But when the doors finally opened, all I saw was emptiness.

After that, even if I thought of him, I mostly held back—or felt more hatred than anything else.

My voice sounded painfully hoarse. "Did you really not know?"

Nicholas gave a wry laugh and rolled up his sleeve, revealing scars upon scars. "If I had known, there wouldn't be so many cuts here."

He pulled his sleeve back down and chuckled bitterly.

"Maybe half of these wouldn't even be here. I could only hold myself together through these cuts. If I knew we still have a child, I might've.."

He cut himself off abruptly, catching my gaze and quickly explaining, "I'm not blaming you, Ariana. I pulled through, and now that both you and our child are here, I won't let myself think of dying again so easily."