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."

then, as if sensing that wasn't enough, he insisted on picking out another gift.

I didn't argue.

shopping mall, trailing behind

someone watching their own life play

we ran

Nina.

in white. Her makeup was

picture

saw Pax, something in

welled up immediately, slipping down her cheeks in silent, measured streams. Her shoulders

inhaled slowly, she should

she could land a

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

of her dress, wringing it as if

didn't believe

head, exhaling in sharp,

true, isn't

around us

by, conversations still buzzed in

Yet somehow-

Everything around us blurred.

scene suspended in

the three

Pax turned to me.

reflexive-like he needed to read

decide how

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