Parted on the Street, I Chose My Own Path

Chapter 6 He Wanted Me Back

Damian never visited me once during my entire hospital stay.

The only things that appeared without fail were the endless expensive supplements delivered to my room every day.

Whenever the doctors sighed enviously and praised me for marrying such a devoted husband, I finally realized something.

The care Damian treated as ordinary was already enough to look dazzling in the eyes of everyone else.

The next time I saw him was on the day I was discharged. The nurse informed me that all my medical bills had already been paid. When I returned to my room, Damian was standing silently outside the door.

We looked at each other for a long time before he finally spoke.

"Celeste..." His voice was unusually gentle. "I came to take you home."

Then, after a brief pause, he added softly, "Your husband's here to bring you back."

Almost like someone trying desperately to make amends, he quickly lifted the lunchbox in his hands. "Chicken soup," he said. "I made it myself."

Then he smiled faintly. "Ella said it tasted good. I thought you might like it too."

Steam still curled from the soup. But my heart had already gone cold.

I looked at him warily. "I'm not giving up my hair," I said immediately. "This whole act, being gentle one moment and forceful the next, is still for Ella, isn't it?"

"No, that's not it." Damian hurried to explain himself. "I already hired someone to get hair extensions for her."

The question escaped before I could stop it. "Then why were you forcing me?"

"We're husband and wife, Celeste. We shouldn't keep doubting each other like this."

The way he deliberately avoided answering only made me want to laugh. Exhausted, I closed my eyes.

"We stopped being husband and wife a long time ago." Then I lifted my gaze toward him coldly. "Wasn't the divorce agreement sent over by your grandfather?"

Damian immediately shook his head. He closed his eyes briefly before speaking again, his hoarse voice trembling faintly.

"That was my grandfather acting on his own. From beginning to end, I never wanted a divorce." Pain slowly surfaced across his face. "And I never imagined I'd almost become the person who killed you."

"I stayed away because..." His voice thickened heavily. "I didn't know how to face you."

"Celeste..." He looked at me almost pleadingly. "Let's remarry. Let's forget everything that happened before and start over, okay?"

I looked at him quietly. "Who do you think you are?"

Damian froze. "What?"

"What gives you the right to decide your mistakes can simply disappear?" I asked softly.

Then I let out a faint, mocking laugh. "Honestly, I should thank your grandfather. At least he helped pull me out of this nightmare."

Damian instinctively reached toward me, only for his hand to fall helplessly back to his side. His eyes reddened almost instantly. There was regret in them. Pain too.

"Celeste..." His voice cracked slightly. "I already admitted I was wrong."

I turned my face away indifferently. "No one ever said an apology guarantees forgiveness."

"Besides," I continued calmly, "when I knelt there begging you, didn't you refuse to show me mercy too?"

Damian instinctively opened his mouth, wanting to defend himself. But he couldn't deny a single thing I said.

I looked at his pale face and spoke slowly, word by word. "You wanted to drive me insane."

"My brother drugged you, yes. But I was a victim too." My chest tightened painfully. "So why did you dump all your hatred and revenge onto me?"

I clenched my trembling fingers tightly. "And my brother saved your father's life." Tears blurred my vision. "Even if you hated me, couldn't you have given me the bare minimum of dignity? Why did you have to torture me like this?"

Damian stood there in stunned silence for a very long time. He looked utterly lost. In the end, all he could do was repeat the same apology over and over again.

"Celeste... please stop pushing me like this, okay?"

Then, without warning, his emotions snapped. "Do you think you're completely innocent either?" he demanded hoarsely. "All of you kept making decisions for me. Did anyone ever care how I felt?"

"Damian, be careful!" Ella suddenly rushed into the room, her face drained of color as she hurried forward to support Damian's swaying body. Tears shimmered in her eyes as she looked at me with apparent heartbreak.

"Celeste, I don't blame you for hurting me," she said softly. "But are you really going to hurt Damian too?"

Then she turned toward him anxiously. "Damian, wait here. I'll go get a doctor."

The moment she finished speaking, she rushed out of the room.

Meanwhile, Damian never once took his eyes off me. There was pain in his gaze. But far more than pain, there was disappointment.