The Day Our Promise Breaks

Chapter 560

Eighteen hours. That was how long the surgery lasted.

The surgeons removed the charred, necrotic tissue from Charles's thigh, managing, for now, to save his left leg.

But from the very top of his thigh, much of the muscle had to be excised to stave off infection.

What had once been a powerful, sculpted leg was now pitted and disfigured, stripped of its former strength.

This was the conservative treatment plan Charles had chosen himself.

He knew the odds of saving his leg this way were vanishingly slim.

He knew, too, that for the next months he would endure a pain few could even imagine.

Months of agony, only to likely lose the leg in the end. Amputation would probably be inevitable.

But still, Charles chose to try.

He wasn't afraid of pain. What terrified him was being left incomplete-becoming someone unworthy of saying he loved Evelyn, unworthy of her.

One month later.

Hospital room.

The doctor came in to clean Charles's wound.

Layer by layer, the gauze was peeled away, exposing the raw, bloody flesh of his thigh.

So much muscle had been lost, the wound needed daily cleansing and

sterilization to prevent infection and give what little hope there was for muscle regrowth.

Every cleaning was a kind of torture.

Just as he had every day for the last month, Charles's hospital gown was drenched in cold sweat.

time, he bit down

muscle loss was simply

least, there

left, Charles, expressionless, let the orderly help him clean up and change out of his soaked

gray. After Ms. Josephine's words to

he'd seemed hollow, as if all the life had been drained from

Evelyn. I'll tell her it was

once, Evelyn had

Charles had risked his life for her and Josephine-exactly the

hoped for-maybe

to sit by

Mr. Jenkins

here, perhaps Charles wouldn't seem so

Aiden a cold,

Absolutely not.

was

what I ought to do," he said, voice

a life saved to trap Evelyn into doing something she

say this one last time, Aiden. Don't

"Yes, Mr. Jenkins."

dared not defy Charles's

Jenkins, these

for today," Aiden

today," Aiden

as he over

papers.

them required

bed, Charles worked through

video conference call that lasted

Aiden returned to

back against the pillows

one daily