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 on his lip, enduring

muscle

at least, there was no

help him clean up and

since the fire, Mr. Jenkins-Charles-had seen Ms. Evelyn's hair streaked with gray. After Ms. Josephine's words to him, the light

month now, he'd seemed hollow, as if all

can go to Ms. Evelyn. I'll tell her it was you

believed, once, Evelyn had loved

risked his life for her and Josephine-exactly the kind

she'd always hoped for-maybe her

if only to sit by Charles's

Jenkins wanted to

wouldn't seem so lifeless every

Charles shot Aiden

Absolutely not.

one was to

and Ms. Josephine was simply what I ought

of a life saved to trap Evelyn into doing something

this one last time, Aiden.

"Yes, Mr. Jenkins."

not defy Charles's

these

for today," Aiden

today,"

as he over a thick

papers.

of them required

his hospital bed, Charles

video conference call that lasted over

was done, Aiden returned to the

the pillows

had one daily ritual