BURNING BETRAYAL: My Mafia Professor. のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 71 - チャプター 80

His thumb brushed slowly against the back of my hand.“I had a daughter,” he said quietly.My breath stilled.“She was born with a weak heart.”His voice grew softer.“She only lived for one week.”The words settled heavily between us.“My wife…” he paused briefly, his gaze drifting toward the floor.“She couldn’t bear the loss.”His jaw tightened slightly.“She passed away a month later.”A deep silence filled the room.“I lost everything after that,” he continued.“Work. Purpose. The will to keep going.”His fingers tightened slightly around mine.“For an entire year, I barely survived.”His voice was steady, but the weight behind it was unmistakable.“And then my heart started failing again.”I looked up sharply.His eyes met mine.“I inherited the same weak heart,” he said quietly.“The same condition that took my daughter.”The room felt colder suddenly.“I thought that was it,” he said. “I thought my life would end there.”His gaze softened slightly.“But then your father found

A few days passed.I didn’t realize how quickly they went until I tried to remember exactly what I had done each day.The mornings usually started the same way.Soft sunlight slipping through the balcony doors. The quiet sound of waves rolling endlessly against the rocks below. The faint scent of salt drifting in with the breeze.For the first time in a long time, waking up didn’t feel like a burden.My body still felt weak sometimes, but it wasn’t the suffocating kind of weakness that had wrapped itself around me back at Zander’s house. The heavy pressure in my chest had faded. My breathing came easier now, deeper, steadier.Most of my days were spent on the balcony.Maria had placed a small chair and table there, and it quickly became my favorite place in the house. I would sit there for hours with a book in my hands, the ocean stretching endlessly in front of me.The sound of the waves had a strange effect on my mind.It quieted things.Thoughts that once felt sharp and overwhelmin

The picture slipped from my hands.It didn’t fall loudly.Just a soft crack against the floor.But the sound felt like thunder inside my head.My fingers stayed suspended in the air where the frame had been seconds ago, trembling uncontrollably. My knees buckled before I even realized what was happening.The floor rushed up to meet me.My palms scraped against the cold surface as I collapsed.I couldn’t look at the photograph again.I couldn’t.But it was already burned into my mind.Her smile.The curve of her lips.The familiar softness in her eyes.My mother.My stomach twisted violently.“No…” I whispered.My hands flew to my ears as if I could block out the image still flashing behind my eyes.But it didn’t stop.It only grew louder.Her face appeared again.Not from the picture. From my memory.She was sitting in a wheelchair as they wheeled her into the hospital. Her thin hands rested calmly in her lap, her smile gentle despite the pain that had already been consuming her body.

The tension in the room felt thick and heavy.Like the air itself had become difficult to breathe.I looked at Zander, hoping—almost begging silently—that he would say something. Anything.But his jaw tightened.The muscle there flexed sharply.Then he looked away.My chest tightened.The doctor glanced down at the chart in his hands. He adjusted it slightly, clearing his throat.“You experienced a severe psychological episode.”My breath got stuck in my throat.For a second, I thought I had heard him wrong.A psychological… episode?The word echoed strangely inside my head.The doctor continued carefully.“During the episode, you experienced intense panic attacks. Something you saw triggered a severe emotional response.”His eyes briefly flicked toward Zander before returning to me.“You were trying to push the thought away. To make it stop. But you couldn’t.”His voice softened slightly.“So your body reacted.”A cold feeling crept into my stomach.“You hurt yourself without realizi

It had been a few days since I found out I had lost my baby.The day I discovered I was pregnant, the first thought that crossed my mind was to get rid of it.I didn’t want to carry an enemy’s child inside me.I didn’t want to give Zander another family.But then the thought had shifted.Slowly.Quietly.I had no one.No mother. No father. No place that truly belonged to me.For a brief moment, I had imagined what it would be like.Someone who was mine.Someone who wouldn’t betray me.Someone who might give me a reason to keep breathing.So I decided to keep it.And now…Now it was gone.The emptiness inside me felt deeper than anything I had ever known.And I felt more alone than I ever had before.When I woke up after that day in the hospital, I didn’t speak.Not a word.I didn’t cry either.I couldn’t.The tears had dried somewhere inside my chest.Everything inside me felt numb.Cold.Embarrassment burned quietly beneath my skin.Embarrassed that I had hurt myself without even rea