Chapter 153

Liliana gripped his hand tighter. "What... what do you mean?"

"Sis, I'm in so much pain." Hale's grip was limp, his face aged with sorrow. "Every time I close my eyes, all I see is that person lying in a pool of blood..."

Suddenly, he yanked his hand back and started hitting his own head forcefully.

"I should be dead! Why did I go out that day? If it weren't for me, she wouldn't have died!"

Liliana quickly stood up, grabbing his wrists, but his frantic movements threw her off balance.

Tears burst from her eyes, splattering onto her clothes and Hale's hands.

"Even if you weren't there that day, it would have been someone else! She intended to stage an accident for a payout, don't you understand? Her family already admitted it—"

"No. Maybe... if she had more time, she would have come to her senses. She would have gotten treatment and chosen to live..."

Hale was trapped in a dead end.

He always imagined his situation as a bleak, gray landscape.

He even believed the deceased could have awakened from her desperate state, yet he refused to accept his own innocence.

He struck his head again and again, so forcefully that Liliana couldn't stop him despite her best efforts.

"If I had been driving slower, maybe I wouldn't have hit her!"

"If I had just swerved and hit a tree, she wouldn't have died!"

"Why couldn't I have just hit the brakes sooner?"

Assailed by one self-doubt after another, Hale clutched his head in agony, kneeling on the hospital bed.

Liliana stumbled onto the bed as well, desperately holding onto his hands.

"Hale, don't scare me. Please, calm down. It really wasn't your fault."

She tried to calm him, but no matter what she said, Hale remained trapped in his torment on the bed.

He constantly found fault in himself, and her words had no effect.

"It was my fault, all my fault. I'm a murderer. I should go to prison, I deserve to be in prison..."

With that, Hale lunged off the bed. The momentum pulled Liliana, who was still holding his hand, off balance, dragging her from the bed.

Her forehead struck the corner of the bedframe, and her vision momentarily went black, but she refused to let go of Hale.

Using his momentum, she pulled herself up and pressed the emergency button by the bed. "Dr. Brooks...!"

Instantly, the quiet floor erupted into chaos.

The frantic sound of footsteps, Hale's ragged breathing and murmurs, and the frantic pounding of Liliana's own heart.

It all flooded into her mind. Beyond the instinct to hold onto Hale, she was completely numb.

Soon, Dr. Brooks arrived with several other doctors.

They restrained Hale and gently pulled Liliana aside.

"Miss Preston, please wait outside. Trust Dr. Brooks."

The assistant physician led Liliana out of the room.

As she came to her senses, Liliana grabbed the assistant's arm. "You said his

condition was improving! Why is this happening?"

She had never seen Hale like this.

Helpless, terrified, consumed by guilt—he was hitting himself, treating himself like an enemy!

The assistant physician sighed

helplessly. "At the very least, there

are moments when the patient's

condition is stable. But when an

episode occurs

he's still

uncontrollable. Miss Preston please

to calm down."

try to

Liliana's lips turned down in an expression of indescribable heartache and grief.

She leaned helplessly against the

wall, watching the assistant physician return to the room,

vel

listening to Hale's defiant

from within

The image of the sunny, vibrant boy with a brilliant smile who called her 'Sis' began

to fade from her memory.

What would it take to get the old Hale back?

She hugged her knees, sinking to the

floor with her back against the wat

Her eyelashes,

wet with tears stuck

together, blurring her vision.