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.

his eyes

colorless, her chest rising and falling only because of the oxygen mask fitted over her face. Her wrists were bandaged where the ropes had

Stefan, she looked both heartbreakingly fragile

before he could stop them, hot trails sliding down his smoke-burned face. His knees weakened, and he had

fought through fire, through pain, through suffocating smoke to save her — but nothing prepared him for the sight before him. Seeing Ruby

lowered himself into the chair beside her, his

His voice cracked, a whisper carried on shattered breath. "God, I'm

down, one after another, falling onto the back of her hand. He pressed her fingers against his lips, clinging to

couldn't protect our baby. 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 your eyes lit up every time you touched your stomach. I saw it, Ruby. I saw how much you already loved it. And

loss hollowed him out,

himself break. The weight of guilt, the agony of helplessness, the unbearable pain of knowing he'd

upright. His hand tightened around hers, his breathing ragged but steadier. He wiped his face roughly with his uninjured hand, dragging himself out of

can't fall apart. Not now. You need me. I have to be strong for

leaned closer, his forehead

Ruby…" His voice softened to a broken vow. "I swear to you, if you just wake up,