Chapter 1540:

Charlette didn’t say another word. A deep, unshakable sense of defeat settled in her chest. Why did Ellis keep treating her with such care? Every time he forgave her outbursts, she just pulled him deeper into her own chaos. The only thing holding her back was her last shred of decency. She didn’t want to ruin him. Still, he always came back.

Moments like this made her crave a cigarette, but when she reached for the pack, Ellis’s earlier warning echoed in her mind, and she let her hand drop.

Pressing her back to the glass liquor cabinet, she looked up, her voice laced with bitter resignation.

“Ellis, you already know how things are for me. My dad gambled everything away, and my mom just tolerated it. I nearly ended up killing him when I was a teenager and torched our house. You and I? We’re nothing alike. You grew up in a family that has everything: money, love, opportunities. You could have anyone. Why waste your time on someone like me?”

She supposed someone with her kind of past wasn’t meant to find happiness.

Ellis shook his head and said, “Your parents’ mistakes aren’t yours. Don’t let what they did haunt you.”

A faint, almost empty smile flickered across Charlette’s lips. She wasn’t to blame. If only someone had told her that two decades ago, maybe she wouldn’t have lost control or strayed so far from the right path.

Back then, her father had made her the villain of every story, blaming her for their misery, shouting at and hitting her mother as if that would fix anything. She’d walked away from that house, worked hard, saw a bigger world and more people, and understood their misfortunes weren’t her doing.

Still, none of it really helped. By the time she figured things out, the damage inside her felt permanent. Now that she’d opened up, she figured she might as well lay everything bare.

𝗢𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲 ⧼gⱥ𝗅𝗇𝗈ν𝖊𝗅𝘀⧽𝖼𝗈𝗺

Charlette reached for a small bottle of pills and held it out to Ellis.

“Take a guess. What do you think this is?”

Though Ellis specialized in weapons, he recognized enough medical terms to read the label, and his face darkened a shade. Charlette knew he understood right away. Without flinching, she popped a pill in her mouth and swallowed.

“I’ve got a diagnosis. Something’s wrong with my mind.”

Dropping her gaze, she let a bitter, self-deprecating grin linger. Any sane person would walk away now, right? Who would stick around after learning that?

A heavy silence pressed in, so thick that it seemed to squeeze all the air out of the room.

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