The sound of the soft knocking still echoed in Isolde's head, blending with the thunderous, erratic pounding of her heart. Her ears were ringing violently. She thought her terrible hallucinations had returned amid her loneliness and the hunger twisting in her stomach. However, that unmistakable baritone voice called her name again—calm, deep, and filled with restrained longing. "Isolde... Open the door. I'm home..." Without realizing it, Isolde's fingers, wrapped in white gauze, tightly gripped her thick blanket. All the mental defenses she had built over the past week instantly shattered into pieces. The pride that had guarded her heart, the ego that forbade her from appearing weak, and the rejection she had desperately clung to suddenly vanished without a trace. All that remained was an overwhelming fear of loss—the fear that the man's shadow would truly disappear from her world forever. With
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