Chapter 92

Lila’s POV

I didn't know when I slept off, after crying for hours, exhaustion finally took over me and I slept off. Even in my sleep all I could think of was Drew, not minding the fact that he hated me now. I didn't know how long I slept but immediately I woke up his eyes opened, staring at me with so much intensity and in that moment my entire world shifted.

For hours, no it felt like lifetimes, I had sat in that chair beside his bed, counting the rise and fall of his chest, terrified that each breath might be the last. My body went numb, my mind was shattered, and now… he was awake. It felt like a miracle.

I don’t even remember moving, only that one moment I was frozen in disbelief, and the next I was leaning forward, cradling his face in my trembling hands as if anchoring myself to the proof that he was alive.

“Drew…” I whispered, my voice already breaking. “You’re awake. Oh God, you’re awake.”

Relief ripped through me so violently that my knees nearly gave out, even though I was sitting. My eyes flooded, my chest heaved, and my words tumbled without control. “Are you okay? Do you feel pain? Tell me where it hurts, please tell me.”

But he didn’t answer.

He just… stared. His gaze was steady, sharp, and unreadable in that way only Drew Sinclair could manage. For a moment, I thought maybe it was the medication, maybe he wasn’t fully conscious, but then his jaw ticked, and reality set in.

The air grew heavy, pressing between us.

And then, slowly, deliberately, he reached up and removed my hands from his face.

The warmth of his skin vanished from my palms, leaving them cold and empty. My breath hitched as he dropped them unceremoniously back onto my lap.

“I don’t want you anywhere around me,” he said flatly.

The words sliced through me with surgical precision. One single slice that tore my heart into two. It was just cold and detached.

I blinked at him, stunned, my mouth falling open though no words came. My heart hammered against my ribs, too frantic to hold in. I had been so certain that if I just saw him open his eyes, if I could just feel the life still inside him, I would be okay. But now? I wasn’t okay at all.

“Drew, please…” My voice cracked, raw with panic as I sat forward, desperate. “Please just listen to me.”

His gaze hardened, but he didn’t stop me. He leaned back against the pillows, his jaw set, as if bracing for whatever I had to say.

“I never meant to hurt you,” I blurted, the words tumbling out too fast. My fingers twisted together in my lap, nails biting crescents into my skin. “I never wanted to hurt you, Drew or anyone. Keeping the pregnancy from you wasn’t because I wanted to punish you. I swear it wasn’t. I thought… I thought I was protecting myself and the baby.”

His eyes flickered, but he said nothing. The silence forced me to keep going, my heart slamming faster with every word.

“You were so cold to me,” I whispered. “From the very beginning, after that night… you made it clear it meant nothing to you. You made me feel like nothing. So I thought, if I told you I was pregnant, you would think it was just a trick, a ploy to keep myself close to you.” Tears blurred my vision, spilling before I could stop them. “I could not bear for you to accuse me of that. I could not bear for you to reject me and your child the same way.”

His lips pressed into a thin, merciless line.

I dragged in a shaky breath, forcing myself to continue. “That is why I kept it to myself. Not because I did not trust you, but because I thought you would never trust me. I thought silence was safer.”

The weight of his stare was unbearable. My chest squeezed so tightly I could barely breathe, but I kept speaking.

“And Max…” My throat closed, but I forced the name out. “I thought he was a friend. I thought he cared about me, that he wanted to help. When I told him about the pregnancy, it was because I had no one else to talk to. I was so scared and alone, and he seemed… kind. He offered to take responsibility for me and the baby, and even then, I did not say yes. I could not because it didn’t feel right. It never felt right.”

I looked at Drew through blurred eyes, desperate for him to believe me. “The moment I realized who Max really was, the moment I saw the truth about his intentions, all I wanted to do was expose him. I swear to you, Drew. I never wanted him involved. I never wanted him in this at all.”

Silence.

It stretched until the sound of the heart monitor beside him seemed to echo like thunder.

Then Drew’s voice, low and cold, broke through.

“So not only did he know,” he said slowly, each word laced with venom, “but he also wanted to take responsibility. For my child.”

I flinched. The way he said it, it wasn’t just anger. It was devastation wrapped in fury.

“Drew, I know how it looks” I tried to cut in, desperate.

His head snapped toward me, his eyes sharp enough to cut. “It looks exactly how it is, Lila.” His tone was quiet, but it carried a finality that shook me. “You trusted him with what you should have trusted me with. You let him carry a truth that was mine to carry first. And worse” his voice cracked, raw, “you gave him the chance to claim what was mine.”

“No,” I cried, my voice breaking. “I didn’t! I never let him, I never would! I swear to you, Drew, I didn’t know what he was capable of. If I had, I would never”

“Stop.” He cut me off with a sharp slice of his hand. His breathing was uneven, his chest rising and falling too fast for a man already in pain. But the fury in his eyes burned hotter than his wounds.

“Do you think your excuses validate what you did?” His voice lowered, almost shaking now. “Do you think saying you were scared makes it any better? You robbed me of the truth. You robbed me of the chance to decide. You didn’t trust me enough to even try.”

I opened my mouth, but no sound came. My throat had closed completely, strangling me.

He looked away, staring at the ceiling, his fists clenching around the sheets. And then, finally, he said the words that shattered me completely.

“You’re no different from her.”

The world tilted. My breath stopped. “What?” I croaked, but it came out barely more than air.

His gaze swung back to mine, blazing with a pain I had never seen so clearly before.

“You took away my choice,” he said, his voice breaking but his words unrelenting. “Just like Kimberley did.”

The room spun. The sound of his words echoed in my head, louder and louder until it drowned everything else out.

I froze, stunned, shattered, unable to breathe, unable to speak.

I couldn’t even cry, it became so clear to me in that moment that I wasn’t just fighting for forgiveness anymore. I was fighting the ghost of the woman who had destroyed him once before.