Chapter 77

Twenty-four hours.

That was all the time I had left.

Last night-After Pax asked me to start over, I didn't respond.

I simply sat there, letting the weight of his words sink into the candlelit hush between us.

The restaurant, once warm and intimate, suddenly felt distant, the glow of the chandeliers dimmed by something neither of us was willing to name.

A silence stretched between us, thick and unresolved.

Pax's mother, ever perceptive, didn't push for an answer.

"These kinds of things should be settled between the two of you," she murmured, dabbing the corner of her lips with a napkin. "I've had my fill. I'll be heading home."

Before leaving, she handed me a gift.

An emerald jade bracelet-delicate, flawless.

I refused instantly.

It was too much, too significant.

But Pax didn't hesitate. He took it for me, slipping it into his pocket with the ease

of someone who had already decided for me.

"Then I'll hold onto it for now."

sensing that wasn't enough, he insisted on

I didn't argue.

the high-end shopping mall,

own life

we ran

Nina.

was dressed in white. Her makeup was

picture of

she saw Pax, something in her

her cheeks in silent, measured streams. Her shoulders trembled as if she were standing in the eye of some

slowly, she

level of control, she could land a starring role without an

told me," she whispered, voice trembling with raw emotion. "He said you were going

of her dress, wringing it as if trying to

believe him.

exhaling

true, isn't

world around us didn't

conversations still

Yet somehow-

Everything around us blurred.

a scene suspended in

three of

Pax turned to me.

reflexive-like he needed to read my expression before

how to

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