Chapter 363
Chapter 363:
Her laugh echoed around them—shrill, messy, unhinged. When it finally died down, she stared at Dario and spat, “You’re the most pathetic man I’ve ever seen. Why even help him? Even if you succeed, Alden gets the glory. You won’t even get near Helena. Not a touch. Not even a strand of her hair p>
Dario didn’t answer right away. He just looked at her as if she wasn’t worth the breath and let out a smile.
“What’s so funny?” Eleanino’s voice was tight with spite.
Dario let out a tired breath. “I’m laughing because you’ve never once understood what it means to love someone p>
Dario spoke slowly and clearly, ensuring every syllable was heard. “I’m in love with Helena. The only thing I care about is her well-being—her safety and health. When it comes to who she ends up with, that’s entirely her decision p>
Eleanino froze where she stood, as though struck by lightning. A storm of jealousy twisted her already warped expression. Why? What had Helena ever done to earn such fierce loyalty and unwavering devotion—not from one, but from two men?
Pushed to the edge of her patience, Eleanino burst out laughing, the sound sharp and bitter. “Ha! You’re pathetic—completely blinded by love! And after all the dirty planning with Alden, you still failed to protect her p>
She conjured the image of Helena’s blood-soaked face in her mind. The thought made her lips curl into a cruel smile. With venom in her voice, she spat, “Helena’s probably dead by now. You won’t lay eyes on her ever again p>
“Huh, don’t count on it p>
Dario gave a sharp, dismissive snort and kept his mouth shut after that. He didn’t waste breath arguing. With rough hands, he tied her up tight and shoved her into the car without ceremony.
Meanwhile, Alden was still lying in the dirt, bruised and filthy, looking like he’d been chewed up and spat out. The pounding in his skull had begun to ease. Slowly, his eyes focused again. He pushed himself up, shaky and grimacing, and started limping toward the place where Helena had fallen.
A short distance away, on a small rise in the ground, a figure lay still—pale as moonlight and eerily quiet. There was not a flicker of life in sight.
Alden’s vision was still smeared and hazy, but the moment he made out the body’s outline, the ground seemed to tilt beneath him. He dropped to his knees with a heavy, lifeless thump. Not once in his life had he known fear so raw it seemed to freeze his blood where it flowed.
𝙍𝙖𝙬 𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙡 𝙩𝙤: g𝖺𝗅𝗇𝗈ν𝖊𝗅𝘀⨳ⅽ𝗈𝗺
Terror gripped him so tightly that, even though Helena lay just a few paces away, he couldn’t make himself move. His legs felt like lead. He didn’t dare look.
“Helena… Helena,” he whispered, her name barely making it past his lips. His gaze drifted, empty and dazed, as if he weren’t really there at all.
Right then, like a flood breaking loose, every last shared moment with her rushed through his mind in a single, piercing instant.
He thought back to those short, scattered moments after he lost his memory. Nearly every single time, he’d ended up hurting Helena in one way or another.
He recalled the revulsion in his own gaze whenever he looked at her. Eleanino’s poisonous lies had pushed him to lash out at Helena repeatedly. Then came the memory of their last conversation over the phone.