Substitute Wife For The Blind CEO

Chapter 187 - 187: Wake Up

The hallway felt longer than it should have. Stefan's bare feet touched the cold floor as he made his way slowly, his body weak and unsteady, yet pulled forward by something stronger than exhaustion — the desperate need to see her.

Ethan followed him closely, ready to catch him if his knees buckled again, but Stefan barely noticed. His mind was a storm, his chest a battlefield of pain and love and guilt.

When they reached the ward, Rayna was sitting outside on a plastic chair, her face pale with worry. She stood the second she saw Stefan, shock flickering across her eyes.

"Stefan—you shouldn't be out of bed," she started, but one look at his face stopped her. He was beyond reason.

"I need to see her," he said, his voice a rasp of iron and breaking glass.

Rayna's throat tightened, but she didn't argue. She only stepped aside, her eyes filling with tears as she placed a hand briefly on his arm, a silent promise that she understood.

Stefan nodded before going ahead to push the door open.

The smell hit him first — the faint sting of disinfectant, mixed with the sterile cold of hospital air. The room was dim, the blinds drawn, the only light coming from the monitors at her bedside. The soft, steady rhythm of machines filled the silence, each beep a cruel reminder that those machines were doing the work her body couldn't yet manage.

eyes landed

the crisp sheets. Her lips, though no longer blue, were colorless, her chest rising and falling only because of the oxygen mask

she looked both heartbreakingly

his breath catching in his throat. His vision blurred with tears before he could stop them, hot trails sliding down his smoke-burned face. His knees weakened, and he had to grab the edge of a chair to steady

had raced through time to stop her from being hit by a car, fought through fire, through pain, through suffocating smoke to save her — but nothing prepared him

she might break, he moved to her side. He lowered himself into the chair beside her,

cracked, a whisper carried on shattered breath.

hand. He pressed her fingers against his lips, clinging to

I wasn't fast enough. I wasn't strong enough." His words broke into sobs he could no longer contain. "You don't know how much you wanted that baby. How

his head, tears falling freely now, his chest heaving with grief. The loss hollowed him out,

The weight of guilt, the agony of helplessness, the unbearable pain of knowing he'd have to look

but steadier. He wiped

voice still trembling but firmer now. "I can't fall apart. Not now. You

forehead resting gently

if you just wake up, I'll spend