At the End of Ruin, There You Are (56 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 71

My vision was blurry. Everything was dark and indistinct, and I wanted desperately to see more clearly and sharply.

Caella strained her eyes with all her might. Her body felt as heavy and limp as waterlogged fabric, utterly drained of strength, yet she still needed to keep her gaze steady. As she persisted in keeping her eyes open, the darkness gradually sharpened into focus.

The familiar canopy of the Grand Duke’s four-poster bed, the drawn drapes, the faint glow from the slightly lit fireplace, and the dry scent of aged wood.

Caella stared blankly at the scene before her, her mind empty. At the edge of that sight sat a man, fixedly watching her beside the bed.

‘Ah, again.’

He appeared once more. Caella closed her barely open eyes. She shut them tightly, then opened them again.

The fireplace’s light cast shadows across his handsome face, while pale dawn light filtered through the window on the opposite side, competing with the firelight to claim half his face.

His clear violet eyes—untouched by any hint of black—stared at her without blinking.

Even after closing and reopening her eyes, he remained. The man who had left the deepest mark on her entire life sat there, like a phantom.

“Caella.”

He rarely used her name, yet now he called it so readily—her name, not a title—tenderly and affectionately.

“Can you hear my voice?”

His cautious, almost whispering voice asked gently. Why was he being so careful? She was just Caella—someone undeserving of such delicate treatment, someone who meant absolutely nothing to him.

“Can you see me? Do you recognize who I am?”

How could she not? Caella was puzzled that he even asked such a question.

Read full content of this chapter on r e d c a t t y . c o m