#Chapter 220: The Proposal

She said my name. That alone could’ve kept me steady. I could’ve taken that rasp of sound and stepped back, let the medics do their work, let them stabilize her, breathe life back into her, and rebuild what had almost been lost. But I didn’t. I couldn’t move. My hands still trembled from the weight of her collapse, and something deep in my chest had cracked wide open, making room for the unbearable relief that she was still here, barely, but here, and she had said my name. For a long moment, I just looked at her. Her face, slack with exhaustion, somehow still held that stubborn line of determination. Her lips were parted as though she was still trying to form the next word. I didn’t know if she was going to speak again or drift further away. I didn’t know if I had seconds or minutes. But I knew this was it. The world was still fractured, still echoing with aftershocks of what we’d survived, but somewhere in the middle of it all, she was alive. And I was not going to waste another