This time, the injection did not bring the searing pain that made life worse than death.

Yvonne's cracked lips quivered. She gazed at the man before her, her tears falling in heavy, silent streams.

Jace looked back at her just as deeply, an unspoken understanding passing between them. At this moment, words were unnecessary.

"Hugh... Thank you..." Her voice was barely more than a whisper, yet it struck Jace like a hammer to the chest.

When she called him Hugh this time, he did not correct her, nor did he resist. He simply accepted it.

Since the night Yvonne had been captured, he had suffocated under the weight of regret. Every day, he lived with the tormenting thought, 'If I hadn't blocked her path... If I'd let her go just a moment sooner... Would she have escaped Clarice's grasp? Would she have been spared this agony?'

"You should know... No one who enters this place ever leaves. Most do not even escape death." His voice was low, thick with something unreadable.

Then, in a rare and quiet defiance, hidden beyond the surveillance cameras, he reached out and wrapped his calloused fingers around her frail, bony hand. "So hold on. Just a little longer. Give me time—I will find a way."

Yvonne's heart clenched. A warmth, foreign yet comforting, spread through her chest. She closed her eyes, a silent acceptance, a fragile trust.

She had reached her breaking point long ago. More than once, she had thought of biting through her tongue to end it all. But Jace's words and his promise anchored her.

Even if he ultimately failed to save her, she would never hate him. Her life was worthless.

if she could pull him back from the abyss and help him reclaim the memories he had lost, then it

click echoed down the corridor. The measured, deliberate

'Clarice.' Jace's expression darkened.

lips, he signaled Yvonne to remain silent. Then, with swift precision, he gripped the collar of her hospital gown and yanked it

skin was exposed beneath him. He dropped to one knee beside her bed, his towering

open with

imposing, her presence thick with suspicion. Behind her, two

her informant reported that Jace had dismissed the medical

had ignited in her veins, but there was

made mistake after mistake. Grant may have remained silent, but she knew

remove him—then she alone would be Grant's right hand.

sight before

What the hell are

inches from Yvonne's

been by the Boss' side for so long, yet you still lack basic awareness? Must you always ruin my

she let out soft, shuddering sobs beneath him, as though she

her expression shifting from suspicion to disgust. "That filthy, used-up whore... You actually stomach touching her? Does she not repulse

voice laced with mockery. "A man

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