Todos os capítulos de LOVE BENEATH RIVALRY : Capítulo 111 - Capítulo 120

Whilst the men were arguing, Elisa was struggling to breathe.It was not sudden. It was not dramatic at first. It crept in quietly, as though her body itself was betraying her in silence while the room was still filled with raised voices and unresolved hatred.Her chest tightened.At first, she thought it was panic. She had felt panic before — sharp, dizzying, overwhelming — but this was different. This was heavier. Deeper. It felt as though something inside her chest was folding in on itself, squeezing tighter and tighter with every shallow breath she tried to draw.Her fingers trembled as they pressed against her chest, clutching her heart desperately, as though she could physically hold it together if she pressed hard enough.Her vision blurred.The edges of the room darkened, tunnelling inward. The sound of Leonard and Damian arguing dulled, their voices warping into muffled echoes that seemed far away despite being only feet from her.She reached out.Her other hand lifted weakly

When Damian was done filling the form, he quietly handed the it back to Leonard.There was no triumph in his expression. No satisfaction. Just exhaustion—bone-deep, soul-heavy exhaustion that came from loving someone too fiercely while standing powerless on the sidelines of her suffering.Leonard took the form without comment.Without looking at Damian, he redirected it to one of his men, his voice low but firm.“Submit this at the front desk.”The man nodded and disappeared down the corridor.And then there was nothing.Nothing but the waiting.Time stretched in a way that felt cruel, warped—five hours that felt like five years, five lifetimes, five silent funerals rehearsed in the mind over and over again. The sterile white walls seemed to close in, the ticking of a distant clock echoing too loudly, as if mocking the fragile rhythm of the heart they were all waiting on.Leonard sat rigidly, his back straight, his hands clasped together so tightly his knuckles had gone white. He didn

The moment Leonard was about to answer the doctor’s last question, the room was suddenly torn apart by the sharp, violent beeping of machines.The steady, rhythmic beeping that had filled the private hospital room until now fractured into a chaotic, frantic alarm. The heart monitor spiked wildly, its sound shrill and unforgiving, cutting straight through Leonard’s chest like a blade.“—What’s wrong?” Leonard demanded instantly, his voice sharp, tight, fear punching through every syllable as he spun toward Elisa’s bed. “What’s wrong with her all of a sudden?”The doctor startled, her entire posture snapping into alertness as she rushed forward. “Hold on—wait—”She moved quickly, efficiently, hands flying over the equipment, eyes scanning numbers, checking vitals with practiced urgency. Her fingers pressed against Elisa’s wrist, then her neck, then moved to the blood pressure cuff as the machines continued screaming for several unbearable seconds.Leonard stood frozen, heart hammering v

When both men turned around, following the sudden intensification of the beeping, they were met with the sight of Elisa staring faintly at them both.Her eyes were half-lidded, unfocused, glassy with exhaustion and confusion, as if she had surfaced from a long, dark sleep and had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there. Her breathing was shallow, uneven, barely audible, the soft rise and fall of her chest the only rhythm grounding the room. For a moment, nothing else existed—no voices, no machines, no past, no revelations—only the fragile fact that she was awake.The room froze.The beeping machines continued their steady rhythm, the sterile hum of electricity and life-support filling the silence that neither Leonard nor Damian dared to break. Inside Leonard’s chest, his heart slammed violently, not with relief, but with something far darker—panic, regret, anger, and a truth clawing at the inside of his skull, demanding to be acknowledged.Elisa’s gaze shifted slowly, unfocu

The old man’s voice did not waver as he continued, even though the weight of what he was saying pressed heavily against the walls of the room.“Eliot was even willing to support her and the child, he was willing to accept the baby, to protect his daughter and his grandchild” Robert stated again, slower this time, as if forcing the words to settle into Leonard’s bones. “But by the next morning when he went looking for Annalise, she was gone. She had left the night before without even telling anyone. She ran away.”The words echoed.They didn’t simply linger—they hung, suffocating and immovable.Robert paused his narration deliberately, his eyes moving from Damian, to Leonard, to Elisa. He took in their stunned faces, the disbelief, the shock, the fracture lines forming in their expressions.Leonard’s chest rose sharply.“No,” he said suddenly, his voice rough, infuriated, breaking the silence like shattered glass. “I don’t believe that.”His fingers dug into the armrest of the chair.“