Overwhelming gratitude crashed over her, and Hadley dropped into a deep, reverent bow.
“Hey!” Colleen jolted with surprise, her hand shooting forward in a futile attempt to halt Hadley’s gesture. “What are you doing? Get up quickly!”
The cruel bars rendered Colleen helpless, transforming her into a frustrated witness.
“No debt could ever measure what you’ve given me!” Hadley’s voice broke as she maintained her grateful bow.
When she finally raised her face, her eyes carried the weight of a thousand unspoken thank-yous.
“Please, enough!” Anxiety edged Colleen’s voice as she tried to reach through the barriers between them. “If gratitude truly moves you, then gather your scattered pieces and become whole again! Promise me you’ll fight for yourself like a soldier!”
Through her tears, Hadley’s mouth curved into the ghost of a smile—fragile but real. “Thank you… thank you for everything. I swear I will.” Get full chapters from find?novel.net
Colleen’s voice faded into silence, the story complete.
Silence crashed into the private room with such force that the air itself seemed to hold its breath.
Eric’s fists were clenched tightly, his veins rising like angry rivers across his skin. All color had drained from his typically composed features, leaving behind a mask of bone-white skin and eyes that stared into nothing.
Colleen watched him with concern, recognizing the same haunted expression that had once consumed Hadley’s face.
Minutes stretched like hours before Eric finally dragged his gaze upward to meet hers.
“Hadley’s condition… it started back then, didn’t it?”
“Yes.” Colleen’s head moved in confirmation as she delivered the clinical truth. “It’s PTSD.”
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PTSD?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder—a severe psychological condition caused by traumatic experiences.
Ice flooded Eric’s veins while electricity crawled across his scalp. His knowledge came only from movies and news stories—distant tragedies that had suddenly become his reality.
“It’s a severe stress disorder,” Colleen began her explanation. “Patients usually experience it after sudden traumatic events or intense psychological stress. Hadley endured months of therapy afterward and learned to function again, though intimacy remained a battlefield she couldn’t navigate.”
Her eyes found Eric’s face, reading the guilt already etching itself into his features. “When you re-entered her life, I believed she’d finally conquered her demons.”
This latest breakdown had shattered that hopeful illusion.
Eric’s eyelids slammed shut as if darkness could block out the truth.
She had been healing, building herself back piece by precious piece! His hands had destroyed what years of therapy had carefully constructed!
The word scraped from Eric’s throat like broken glass. “If she remains untreated, what becomes of her?”
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