Chapter 1004:

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By the time the call ended, Ethan had finished showering and returned downstairs. He was now dressed in a dark gray lounge set, his hair still wet from the shower. He seemed more composed than before, but the heavy darkness lingering in his eyes remained.

He sat beside the sofa, took out his phone, and played the recording of the conversation between Brian and me. Again and again, he listened to it, his expression growing more troubled with every replay.

“Ethan, everything will be okay.” I sat down beside him and gently wrapped my hand around his tense fingers.

He didn’t respond for a long while. Eventually, he spoke in a low, heavy voice. “Brian never actually said that he had the full antidote. We only assume that he does.”

I tightened my hold on his hand and tried to reassure him. “We still have some antidote left, so that should give me a little more time. Just like we pretended to cooperate with Melisa before to keep her calm, we can do the same with Brian. Once he contacts me again, I’ll go along with whatever he says. That way, I can find out where he’s keeping the antidote.”

Ethan turned toward me, his eyes filled with emotions I couldn’t quite decipher. For a long time, he said nothing. Then he lowered his head, and when he finally spoke, his voice was rough with bitterness and self-doubt. “Lianne… am I really that useless? I can’t even keep you safe.”

The despair in his voice made my heart ache.

I immediately shook my head and firmly denied it. “You’re not useless. You just care about me too much.”

He lifted his head and looked at me, helplessness and guilt reflected in his eyes.

I clasped his hand tightly and spoke slowly, making sure every word reached him. “With what you’re capable of, dealing with Melisa would have been easy. If you wanted to, you could have gotten rid of her without leaving a trace. But you never did that because you couldn’t gamble with my life. You thought through every move and proceeded with caution at every step. The fact that you were held back doesn’t mean you’re incapable. It means you love me too much to take chances with my life.”

He covered his face with both hands, his voice coming out muffled and heavy with remorse. “If I hadn’t drunk the water you gave me, you could have taken the antidote yourself. We wouldn’t have ended up like this. Lianne, that antidote was supposed to be yours.”

𝘐𝘯𝘀𝘵a𝗇𝘵 𝘢сс𝖾ѕs o𝘯 g𝖺𝘭𝗇o𝘷𝘦l𝘀.com

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