Leonard understood her hidden meaning perfectly.

"I'm jealous," he said, staring right into her eyes. "How did he manage to earn such absolute, unconditional love from you?"

Even buried under all the pain and resentment, the foundation of her love for Joshua was unshakable.

Stella's expression remained entirely blank, showing zero interest in entertaining the conversation.

Leonard shifted his gaze toward the therapy room. "If he agreed to this, it means he's absolutely certain the hypnosis won't work.

For a guy like Joshua, if he doesn't lower his defenses voluntarily, nobody is getting inside his head."

Having said his piece, Leonard didn't linger. He gave her one last, deep look and walked away.

A little while later, Dr. Winter stepped back out to wait with Stella in the hall.

Three grueling hours later, the door finally opened. Joshua emerged.

He instantly looked for Stella, only to be met with a gaze full of crushing disappointment.

Joshua's dark eyes dimmed. "Star, do you really want to erase me that badly?"

"Yes," Stella said simply.

"Once I forget you, we'll be nothing but strangers," Joshua stated.

Stella paused for a long time. "Joshua, stop fighting it. Let me go."

The warmth vanished from Joshua's eyes, leaving nothing but dead winter.

...

After that disastrous session, the tentative peace Stella and Joshua had built completely shattered. They were back to square one.

The breaking point came a few days later when Dr. Winter called to say Calico had been poisoned and barely survived.

Accused by the woman who refused to trust him, Joshua didn't even bother to put up a fight.

He didn't value human life; a cat meant nothing to him.

Still, he offered one flat denial. "I didn't poison the cat. If I wanted it dead, I wouldn't have used such a complicated method."

Stella completely ignored him. First thing the next morning, she headed straight to Mr. Burton's estate to check on the cat.

While seeing the cat was a priority, her main objective was to get an update from Colby.

When she arrived, Colby was aggressively pacing the room, looking like he was tearing his hair out, while Dr. Winter flipped calmly through a stack of reports.

"The induction went perfectly," Colby muttered to himself. "It shouldn't have failed! Where did I go wrong?"

Stella walked over. "Dr. Hunt, is Joshua's hypnosis... still possible?"

"We just need more attempts," Colby stressed. "Limiting it to three tries is just setting us up to fail.

Ms. Cameron, if we strike out on round three, you have to talk him into continuing."

Stella nodded grimly.

Suddenly, Colby's eyes widened in realization.

"Wait. There's a variable I completely missed. I need to go talk to Mr. Burton and Old Mr. Wyatt right now!"

Without even saying goodbye, he bolted out the door like a madman.

Dr. Winter poured a glass of warm water and handed it to Stella with a helpless smile.

"Don't mind Dr. Hunt. He gets laser-focused like this all the time."

Stella took a sip. "It's fine. It shows how dedicated he is."

Dr. Winter watched Stella closely. "Actually, the main reason!

Gardners hypnosis keeps faili

his active resistance.

The second he stops fighting it, someone with Dr. Hunt's skill will knock him under instantly."

Stella knew this perfectly well. She was just trying to figure out how to force Joshua into submission for future sessions.

Suddenly, Dr. Winter spoke up. "Actually, I have a foolproof solution."

Stella looked up. "What solution?"

Dr. Winter's smile suddenly twisted into something grotesque.

"If Joshua finds out you aborted the baby just to get away from him, he'll be completely broken.

His spirit will shatter. Once that happens, he'll give in to the hypnosis, you won't have to stress over it anymore and you can finally walk away and start over.

Alarm bells blared in Stella's head.

This didn't sound like the Dr. Winter she knew.

Catching Stella's sudden

defensiveness, Dr. Winter's smile grew even more deranged her voice dropping to a sickeningly sweet

whisper.

"Star, you're about to get exactly what you want."

Stella's pupils blew wide.

That tone. That exact expression. It was so identical to...

Before the thought could finish, a blinding stab of agony ripped through Stella's abdomen.