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ALYONAHe extended his hand toward me, open and patient. I hesitated for a second, my heart unsure, my mind still crowded with questions. Then I placed my hand in his. His fingers closed around mine gently, as if he knew how fragile this moment was. He smiled, and we began walking toward the rooms. I glanced down at the card in my hand, checking the room number I had booked at the last moment. But Alexander was heading in a different direction.“I think my room is this way,” I said softly, slowing my steps. “I didn’t get the chance to book anything upgraded.” He looked back at me with a calm smile. “You don’t need to worry about that,” he said.I frowned slightly but followed him anyway. He stopped in front of a large door and opened it. The moment I stepped inside, my eyes widened. This was not what I had booked. The room was spacious, warm, and far more beautiful than I had imagined. I turned to him quickly. “Alexander… this isn’t my room. This is not what I booked.”“It’s okay,” he

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ALYONAWe settled into the rhythm of the cruise slowly, as if both of us were afraid to rush what we had been given. Outside, the ocean stretched endlessly, calm and steady, as if it knew how fragile my thoughts still were.Alexander stayed close, but not in a way that felt overwhelming. He walked beside me through the corridors, matched his pace to mine, and spoke only when it felt natural. Yet I could feel his attention on me constantly, not in a watchful way, but in a quiet, devoted one. As if in a space filled with people, laughter, and movement, I was the only thing he truly saw.We stood on the deck for a while, the wind brushing against my hair. I leaned on the railing, watching the water move beneath us. When I turned, I found him looking at me again. His eyes held something deep and careful, memorizing every detail he feared he might lose again.“What?” I asked softly, a little self-conscious.“Nothing,” he replied. “I just like seeing you like this.”“Like what?”“Here,” he

113

ALEXANDERShe was still there. I could feel it—beneath the careful distance, beneath the way she kept herself guarded. The Alyona I had known hadn’t disappeared. She was buried, yes, wrapped in caution and fear, but she surfaced in flashes. In the way she scolded me about the milk. In the way her eyes softened for a second too long when something felt familiar.The woman walking beside me now was more restrained, more measured. She thought before every step, every word, as if she was afraid of wanting too much. And that hurt more than her forgetting ever could.Still, she had given me a chance. One chance to exist beside her again. One chance to live with her, not in the past, but here—now. I wasn’t going to waste it. Not with hesitation. Not with half-efforts.When I held her hand on the way back, my mind replayed the small moments from earlier—the way she had immediately stood up for me, the instinctive way she reached for help when the spice burned too much. That wasn’t logic. That

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ALYONAMorning came quietly. I opened my eyes to soft light slipping through the curtains, the steady sound of the ocean wrapping around the room. For a moment, I didn’t move. Then I realized I wasn’t alone. Alexander was sleeping beside me. My breath caught, just for a second. Instinctively, I held still, afraid that even the smallest movement might wake him. Then last night came back to me in fragments—the nightmare, his arms around me, the way his voice had anchored me when I was falling apart.Slowly, I turned toward him. He looked different in sleep, softer somehow. His thick lashes rested against his cheeks, hiding those hazel eyes that carried so much emotion when he looked at me. His face was calm, almost peaceful, and there was the faintest hint of a smile on his lips, like a child lost in a good dream.Without thinking, I lifted my hand and traced my fingers lightly along his cheek. The warmth of his skin startled me, but it didn’t feel wrong. It felt… familiar, in a way I c

Alle Kapitel von When All Of Me Chose You: She Forgot, He Remembered: Kapitel 111 – Kapitel 114

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