Page 78 of Billionaire’s Heartbreak

“Stay still.”

“I am.” His voice was quiet.

I pushed the needle through his skin. He didn’t move. Not once. I counted because counting gave my mind something to do—something other than think about the blood, something other than imagine what would happen if I made a mistake.

Twenty. Twenty-one. Twenty-two.

My fingers began to ache. Thirty. Thirty-one. Still bleeding. I kept going.

Forty. Forty-one. Forty-two.

My eyes burned, but I refused to let the tears fall.

Forty-seven.

I tied off the final stitch, and my shoulders sagged. “All done.”

For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then I helped him carefully onto his side. “You need to rest.”

He nodded, his eyes already heavy. I started to stand when his hand suddenly closed around mine, and I froze.

He looked at me. Really looked at me. There was no anger in his eyes. No arrogance. No argument. Just exhaustion, and something else. Something I’d spent years trying not to see.

“I love you.”

The words were so quiet I wondered if I’d imagined them. My breath caught. “Oh, Kai…”

His fingers loosened around mine.

“In case I die.”

He smiled, a small, tired smile, then his eyes closed. Within seconds, his body went completely still.

“Kai?”

Nothing.

“Kai?”

I checked his breathing. Steady. Still there. He was unconscious, but alive. He was alive, and that should have been enough.

But the tears I’d been holding back all night finally broke free. I covered my mouth with one hand as they spilled down my face.

Because he had said it.

At the worst possible moment.

And I didn’t know whether to hate him for it or love him for it.

14

June

* * *

I closed my eyes and rested the icy metal spoons over my eyelids. Cold. Heavy. For a few seconds, the chill helped.

Sei Zai.