All Chapters of The Ties That Binds : Chapter 131 - Chapter 140

Savannah pressed her palms against Jackson’s cheeks, her thumbs trembling as they brushed the soot and blood smeared across his skin. His lashes didn’t flutter. His breathing was shallow too shallow. Each rise of his chest was a desperate attempt, a cruel reminder that she could still lose him in the next second.“Jackson…” Her voice cracked as she leaned closer, her forehead resting against his. “Don’t do this. Don’t you dare do this to me.”Alarms wailed in the distance, shrill and unrelenting. The hallway lights flickered violently, the building groaning around them as if warning her they didn’t have time warning her that everything was still collapsing. But Savannah’s world had narrowed to one thing and one thing only: the man lying limp in her arms.She shook him gently, then harder. “Look at me. Please. Jackson, please…”He didn’t move.Cole, battered and coughing, dragged himself toward them on one elbow, gripping the edge of a fallen beam to keep himself from collapsing again.

“Jackson… please… wake up.”Savannah’s whisper trembled into the stillness of the ruined room. Smoke curled along the ceiling, alarms blared distantly, but here on the cracked, dust-covered floor time froze around the unmoving body in her arms. Jackson lay limp, his lashes still against his cheek, his skin too pale beneath streaks of ash. His chest rose too shallowly, too slowly, and every uneven breath sent fear clawing through her ribs.“Don’t do this to me,” she breathed, brushing soot from his jaw with shaking fingers. “Not after everything. Not now.”His blood warm, frighteningly warm stained her palms. She pressed her forehead to his, shutting her eyes tightly, willing him to react, to twitch, to frown, to curse, anything. Anything but this unbearable silence.“You hear me, Jackson Sterling?” Her voice cracked. “You don’t get to leave me. Not after you promised ”A fierce sob cut her words short. She swallowed hard, fighting the rising panic that threatened to drown her. She cur

The lights flickered overhead, throwing harsh streaks of gold across the ruined hallway as Savannah dropped to her knees beside Jackson. His skin was pale, too pale, and the slow rise of his chest felt like a fragile miracle she couldn’t trust. Smoke drifted through the corridor, curling around them like a warning that time was slipping away.“Come on,” she whispered, brushing trembling fingers against his cheek. “Open your eyes. Jackson, don’t you dare leave me now.”The building groaned around them, metal twisting somewhere deep in the infrastructure. The aftershocks of the explosion hadn’t fully settled. Dust rained from above, coating his dark lashes, his hair, the sharp line of his jaw she’d memorized more intimately than she ever meant to.But he didn’t move.Savannah swallowed hard. No. Not again. Not after everything they’d survived. She slid her hand behind his neck, lifting his head gently into her lap as the hall continued to shake.“Jackson,” she tried again, her voice cra

“Jackson… please… stay with me.” Savannah’s voice cracked as she pressed her palms against his cheeks, her thumbs trembling as she tried to feel warmth, any warmth, beneath his skin. The emergency lights flickered above them, painting his face in harsh red flashes that made him look even more lifeless. His lashes didn’t move. His breaths were shallow barely there and the silence around them felt like a knife carving through her ribs. She leaned closer, forehead against his, her breath shuddering. “Don’t do this… not now. Not after everything we fought for.” Her fingers slid into his hair as if clinging to him tightly enough would anchor him to the world.Cole crouched beside her, scanning Jackson’s pulse with shaking hands, his jaw tight and eyes burning with guilt. “He’s alive,” he whispered, though his voice carried the uncertainty of someone hoping more than knowing. “But his body is in shock. The gas hit him harder than we thought.” He looked at Savannah really looked and somethin

The hallway outside Jackson’s recovery suite vibrated with a tension Savannah felt deep in her bones. Doctors rushed in and out with clipped instructions, security guards barked orders into radios, alarms blared faintly from other floors, and the scent of smoke still clung to everyone who had survived the explosion. But even with all that chaos, Savannah felt strangely detached from it, as if her entire world had shrunk to a single point the man lying behind the glass partition, the man who had nearly died trying to protect her. She stood with her palms pressed flat against the cold windowpane, her breath fogging the glass, staring at Jackson as the medical team worked. He wasn’t unconscious anymore, not fully, but drifting in and out with a fragile, unsteady awareness that terrified her more than darkness ever could. Every time his chest rose, she thanked God. Every time it faltered, she felt her soul splinter.Cole’s footsteps approached cautiously, but Savannah didn’t look at him.