Lahat ng Kabanata ng Side Chick Era… Over: Kabanata 2351 - Kabanata 2360

Thomas had a strong constitution to begin with, and with Uriah, Dr. Galen, and Giancarlo — three excellent doctors — looking after him, he recovered fast. Still, the scars couldn't be treated until the wounds themselves had closed. While he was still in the hospital, he'd found some excuse every time his dressings were changed to get Sharon out of the room.Once his wounds healed and the dressing changes stopped, it was time to start applying the scar-repair ointment Uriah had given her. At first, Thomas kept it from her entirely, sneaking off to apply it alone in his room. Since he'd left the hospital, the two of them had been sleeping in separate rooms — his excuse being that if they slept together, she might accidentally brush against his wounds. Sharon had already guessed the truth: he simply didn't want her to see the scars.But the burns covered his back too, and there was no way he could reach them alone. So one day, while he was in the middle of applying the ointment himsel

Thomas continued, "And then we lost the baby. Losing that child took a toll on your body and your mind that I couldn't undo. If I did something to hurt you again, you wouldn't survive it. But if I stayed near you, I still couldn't control myself — and all I'd ever bring you was more harm. "I thought you'd be better off without me. If someone had to wither away, then let it be me — I never had a future to lose anyway. Whatever future I did have, you're the one who gave it to me. Without you, this was always going to be how it ended for me. "All I was really doing was returning to the path I was always on, giving back what you'd given me. If I actually died, that would've been a good thing, too — no one would be left to chase after you by any means necessary."Hearing this, Sharon felt a pain she couldn't push down. She tried to speak, but Thomas's voice came first."After I got back to Leistre, I meant to hold onto our shared memories and wait quietly for the madness to take me, o

Whether Uriah had actually said that, Sharon had no way of checking. She wasn't some naive girl anymore — she'd long since grown familiar with every inch of Thomas's body, and there was nothing left to be shy about. And yet here she was, face burning, fingers trailing over his skin.Rubbing it in, fine. But why did he have to breathe like that? And why did his eyes have to go so hazy?What used to take ten minutes now stretched past half an hour. By the time she finished each session, her face was flushed, her heart was racing, and she was sweating from head to toe. She should have just let him do it himself from the start.Between the ointment and the "massage," it dragged on for over forty minutes before Sharon finally finished for the day. She was about to head to the shower when Thomas suddenly caught her hand."Sharon." His voice was rough. "I'm in so much pain."The word alone was enough to snap her to attention. "Thomas, where does it hurt? Should we go see Uriah and Dr. Ga

"That way, he might still have had a chance at survival," Giancarlo said.For Giancarlo, curing Thomas had always been the top priority. Whether Thomas, once he genuinely hated Sharon, might have actually killed her — that fell outside the scope of what he'd been willing to consider. After all, he had no particular loyalty to Sharon.Hearing this, Sharon caught Giancarlo's meaning easily enough. She didn't blame him for it. Instead, she asked, "Did it work?"Giancarlo looked at her. "Do you think he hates you?"Sharon shook her head. "No.""Exactly," Giancarlo said with a laugh. "That plan never had a chance. He wouldn't let anyone so much as speak ill of you. My medical team nearly got beaten to death, and I nearly got strangled myself."Even now, just remembering that scene made Giancarlo's blood run cold. Back then, Thomas had barely been responding to the outside world at all. Once he cut off contact completely and sank into his own head, there would have been almost no hop

Every gram of that ointment was worth more than gold. These days, Uriah and Dr. Galen had grown so fond of the Ferrero estate they had no intention of leaving. The moment they laid eyes on the family's stockpile of rare ingredients, their eyes practically lit up. Thomas had already promised they could take and use anything they wanted. He knew perfectly well the two doctors had only agreed to help him out of respect for Sharon, but he wasn't about to be stingy about it — if the Ferreros had one thing in abundance, it was rare treasures."My injuries are about healed," Thomas said. "I should be able to head back to Marcentine in a couple of days.""No rush," Sharon said. "Take a bit more time to recover first.""Harley's cunning and dangerous," Thomas said. "Better to deal with him sooner rather than later, before he causes more trouble."Noticing she'd gone quiet, her eyes fixed on him instead of answering, Thomas asked, "Why are you looking at me like that?""The day Chris and