Chapter 1948:

🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙

From the doorway, Jewell watched in silence, letting out a quiet sigh. He had already done everything he could. He had even kept in constant contact with Milford, searching for a way to create an antidote. But the progress had been painfully slow. At this rate, even if the antidote was completed, it might arrive too late to save William’s life.

Stella knew William’s condition was worsening, but she had not expected that even staying lucid would become so difficult for him. Most of the time, his memories were distorted and fragmented. It was no longer like before, when he doubted her feelings. Now, he often seemed to believe they were still living in the past, like one or two years ago.

One day, when he woke up, Stella heard him ask in confusion, “Stella, why are you here instead of being in the lab working on your experiments?”

Stella’s hand paused in midair as she poured water for him.

He had just called her by her full name. Had his memory fallen back to a time before they got together?

“William, I’m your wife. We’re already married. You can’t pretend to have amnesia just to avoid it.”

William looked at her with complete confusion. Not long after, his thoughts would drift again, jumping to another fragment of the past. Whenever that happened, Stella would patiently guide him, sometimes coaxing, sometimes gently explaining everything again. No matter how many times it took, she never showed the slightest sign of impatience.

He was not always like this. There were moments when he got his clarity back, when he knew who Stella was and managed to speak a few words to her.

“Stell… I’m sorry for pulling you into all of this…”

“Stell, I love you so much.”

“Stell, if there’s another life, let’s be together again…”

J𝗈i𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝖼𝗈𝗺mu𝘯і𝘵у 𝘢𝘵 𝗴а𝘭𝗇о𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘀.𝖼o𝗆

Every time he said such things, Stella would be unable to hold back her tears. But she would quietly step out of the hospital room to cry, afraid that even the sound of her sobbing might disturb him.

One afternoon, William suddenly looked at her with a brightness in his eyes that had been gone for so long. “Stell, let’s go hiking. Just the two of us. We can watch the sunrise together.”

Stella froze for a moment, realizing he believed himself to be healthy and strong enough to climb mountains.

She held his hand and said softly, “I’m not feeling very well today. How about we go tomorrow?”

In truth, not even thirty minutes later, he would forget he had ever said that.

William smiled and nodded. “Alright, we’ll go tomorrow.”

Seeing how easily he agreed, Stella felt her eyes fill with tears again.

William looked at Stella, the confusion in his eyes slowly fading, replaced by clarity. It was as if he had understood something, and he let out a soft sigh.

His voice was rough, filled with helplessness. “Stell… was I saying strange things again just now?”

Stella sniffed, recognizing this rare moment of awareness, and shook her head. “No. You weren’t. You said you would like to go hiking. When you recover, we’ll go together.”

William looked at her, his gaze heavy with pain. He lifted his hand and softly touched her cheek. “You’ve gotten so thin.”

.

.

.