Escaped My Ex, Got Snatched by His Rival - Chapter 623

Chapter 623: End: part (2)
“Thank you and love you too, my dear protector,” Ariana answered in a joking voice to ease the tension.

The two of them stayed like that for a bit longer before Noah pulled away and wiped the tears off his eyes. He looked at her and mock threatened, “If you tell Nicolai that I cried, I will bury myself rather than admit it.”

“I won’t,” she promised with a smile.

Noah stared at her and after a heartbeat, he asked, “Are you happy with him?”

“Yeah,” she gave him a nod. “Even though he looks and acts like a brute, he is just like a big teddy bear. Tough on the outside, soft on the inside. If you sit with him and get to know him, you will see that he is truly a kind man in his own ways. At least to me he is kinder than anyone—he is affectionate and respectful in his own ways and keeps me happy.”

Noah snorted. “I believe that he is also apt in dark magic. I can’t believe that he actually made you speak up for him like this; look at you. You used to look down on people like him and now you are calling him kind.”

“He only hurts those who have a criminal record. I don’t see him fighting with someone who hadn’t done anything wrong.”

“Have you forgotten how he beat me up?”

“You mean to say that you did nothing wrong?”

“Wow, you are bent on defending him, huh?”

Ariana smiled and shook her head before saying, “Did you see him? I have been calling him but he didn’t answer my call.”

“That’s because he was with me,” sneered Noah as he stood up. “He is standing outside; I will call him for you.”

Her heart roared to life when she heard that Nicolai was standing right outside; even though the nagging worry kept poking her in the chest and made her question her own place in Nicolai’s heart, she still nodded.

She wondered why Nicolai was standing outside and not coming in. Was it because he didn’t want to see her?

Noah stepped out of the room and shouted something, followed by a commotion. Ariana was worried that something happened and they were fighting once again. Was Nicolai refusing to see her and Noah was forcing him? She was about to step down from the bed and tell Noah that there was no need when the door of the ward opened.

Even though her back was to the door, she knew it was Nicolai because his presence was something that she could never ignore. In fact, it was too hard for her to ignore.

She slowly turned around and looked at the man. He seemed to have changed his clothes, but that was the only thing that was unkempt. From his hair that was longer than usual and his usually clean-shaven face, everything was a mess.

And his eyes —

There was anger and then there was anguish. He looked enraged but the pain that he was suffering from made it impossible for him to speak a single word; maybe that was why his lips were so thinly pursed.

“Nicolai—”

The man snapped his head up but he still didn’t speak; it was as if he was looking at her but at the same time he was not looking at her.

Seeing him stare at her in such a distraught manner, Ariana pursed her lips and then said to him, “Are you not going to talk to me? If so, you can —”

“How could you do this to me?” Nicolai snapped as the words left his mouth in a rush, becoming so jumbled up that Ariana had a hard time understanding them. He came to a stop in front of her and then took her hands in his. He was trembling so hard that he was making her shake along with him.

Only this time it was due to fear rather than anger.

“How could you leave me behind? Even if I am a fucking bastard, you should have slapped me, scolded me, or cursed me, but how could you even think of leaving me behind? Do you even know I will go crazy if I don’t see you for a day?”

He raised his head and Ariana felt another pang of guilt when she saw tears in his eyes. “Were you that angry with me? If you want, then I will never talk with Zena if that’s what makes you happy. But please don’t leave me… I beg you.”

“I didn’t do it because I was angry at you.” Ariana confessed. “I thought that you would find me disgusting and might feel that I cheated you. After all, I was always the pristine princess for you—I thought that you might hate me and see me in a different way and that scared me—I am sorry. I didn’t think it through.”

“You didn’t think it through? Have you lost your mind, Ariana? No matter what your past was, it was and still is cleaner than mine.” He pulled her hand and placed it on his chest, where his heart was still thumping as if it was about to jump out of the chest. “How can you think of leaving me when I only live and breathe for you? You think that I will be fucking fine if you were to leave me? Then you are fucking wrong. I can’t; I never will. You are the one who tamed my demons and made me feel more like a human. You complete me. You are mine. You own half of my soul and my entire heart because its a fucking shell if you are not with him.”

“You don’t know; seeing you bleed on the floor—I thought I was going to die right then and there. I blamed myself for not giving you the priority that you deserved. It was only when I was about to lose you that I realised that I was an idiot; I should have been with you. I never felt so scared in my life, not even when my mother would sleepwalk and try to end her life. No, because I was there to save her. But you—I wasn’t fucking there to hold you and stop you or to protect you.”

“I felt so helpless, so fucking terrified that I had no idea what to fucking do. The wait—those horrible hours where I was waiting for you to wake up and come back to me, without knowing whether you would or not—I was so scared that I wished it was me who almost died instead of you. You are everything to me, princess. My soul, my heartbeat—my fucking life. How could you take my life away from me?”

“I am sorry—I will not do it again. I never wanted to hurt you.”

“Don’t apologise,” said Nicolai as he placed his hand on her abdomen. “Promise that you will never do it again, for me and our child.”