Can’t Win Me Back by Ginger Sue

The once pristine white rose petals were now marred by the dark stain of Julien's blood.

"Let's end it here."

Julien's voice was soft, yet those four words shattered Jonah's heart into fragments.

"Julien, I will not allow you to leave me!" Every muscle in Jonah's body trembled with desperation. A ferocious rage ignited in his eyes. "I know who I love. You are not a substitute for anyone! Julien, don't leave me... I cannot let you go!" Panic coursed through him.

He cried and pleaded, desperately trying to hold Julien back. Torn between gentleness and force, he was willing to accept any outcome as long as the man he adored stayed with him.

The first time it happened, Jonah had barely survived the emotional turmoil. If it happened again, it would drive him to the brink of insanity and death.

His breathing became ragged; his bloodshot eyes blazed with determination.

With open arms, Jonah moved to embrace Julien, who had been reduced to pieces. But just as he leaned in, a sharp pain shot through his left eye.

"Don't touch me!" In a moment of uncontrolled rage, Julien had grabbed another rose, dragging its thorny stem across Jonah's face.

Jonah was fortunate to have closed his eyes just in time; otherwise, that thorn could have slashed his eyeball, leaving him blinded.

against it, forcing out the words, "Jonah, you need to go to the hospital-" Jonah couldn't be bothered about himself. A drop of blood trickled down his face. Fiercely, he pulled Julien into his arms. "Promise me, then... Don't break

admit that I still love you. But now that it has come to this, I'm unable to convince

Julien's eyes were vacant. All the passion that he once had

make me feel like I'm acting as somebody else. That initial purity of your love for me is now gone. Yet, what I

a throaty voice, he continued, "I really envy you and him. It was thanks to him that I was able to have such

the time Alyssa and Sean arrived,

Jonah knelt, a forlorn

sank. She stumbled backward slightly. The man before her was alive but resembled an empty shell, crushed

world happened to Mr. Jonah and Dr. Lovelace?" Sean questioned anxiously. He had been probing her the entire journey there but

Group's president. Yet, he had never

remain composed. "Sean, wait for me outside. Let me have a

brows together, Sean nodded. He had no other option but

to his side slowly, knelt down, and picked up the roses that had scattered across the floor, one at a time. When she picked up the greeting card containing Julien's heartfelt confession, she couldn't contain herself any longer. Tears blurred her vision, smudging the elegant words. Following that, a ball of fury

usually composed, but she could not hold back when her loved ones were suffering! Moreover, it was Jonah's

on such an important day

had rattled her