In the car speeding away, Anthony glanced at the rearview mirror, a faint smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"That kid's still too naïve. Did you see that?" Anthony said smugly.
In the backseat, Ed sat in the shadows, his face unreadable as he gently wiped the sweat from Grace's forehead, his eyes were full of concern.
"She's okay, Ed. Don't worry."
Ed clutched Grace's hand tightly, holding her to his chest. His voice was hoarse. "I regret everything. What am I supposed to do now? I live in fear every single day."
Anthony's smirk faded. He took a deep breath. "Your condition's flaring up again. You need to get a grip and take your meds. I told you, she's not in critical danger -you are. You're unstable. It's only a matter of time before something happens. And what happened back then... it wasn't your fault."
Even in sleep, Grace felt like she was suffocating, as if vines were wrapping around her, squeezing tighter and tighter.
When she opened her eyes and saw nothing but darkness, she finally relaxed. This had to be Ed's place.
She never used to like the dark. But after meeting him, it didn't seem so suffocating anymore.
She touched her stomach. No more pain. Her body felt clean, too-someone had wiped her down.
got no response. She pushed
small hallway light flicked on, and Anthony appeared at
to
Ed struggled with something mentally, but never the
see him,"
calm down. If you really care about him, promise me something—
made her
as Ed was still
stared at him, stunned. He wasn't just talking about protecting
off Ed's dark mutterings as jokes. But had she really tried
breath caught. "You
and removed his glasses, slowly polishing the lenses with a cloth. "When you said that just
not argue because he
movements were calm and deliberate, but somehow, they carried a quiet pressure that made it hard to breathe. It was surprising that
gave her a pointed look. "You've never asked how Ed
to respect
respect, or were you too afraid to dig up the
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