CHAPTER 90: CHAPTER 90; BECAUSE HE COULDN’T

The black faded, chased away by sterile light. The fog of her mind thinned just enough to see them, two silhouettes beyond the bars.

One stood tall and still, clad in shadow and a long, charcoal coat. A silver mask covered half his face, etched with delicate swirling patterns that shimmered under the dim light. His presence radiated something ancient and cold, but not cruel.

The other...

Shen Xiao.

Even through the haze of pain, Yueyao recognized him.

Those broad shoulders, the sharply defined face that had once made her feel safe, and then destroyed her. How could she not know this person?

His presence was unmistakable. The way he stood, rigid and silent, and those eyes... once they held her entire world. Now, they were a reminder of everything she’d lost.

Her pulse quickened.

A cold wave of dread washed over her, her wrists instinctively pulling against the padded restraints beneath the sheets.

Her body recoiled before her mind could process it, as if bracing for pain, for betrayal, for the blow that always came when Shen Xiao appeared.

She hated him.

Her hatred was not loud, but it was quiet and poisonous, like venom steeped in her bones.

"Yueyao," Shen Xiao’s voice echoed, it was low, and tentative, almost pleading. "Come here... I will take you home."

"Come to me," the masked man said, his voice unfamiliar but smooth, carrying a strange, grounding calm.

They stood on opposite sides of the room, and each was calling her in their direction.

The distance between them wasn’t measured by steps or space, but by wounds, old, festering, and unforgiven. The air hung heavy with memory, betrayal, and something far older than either of them dared name.

Two figures.

Two voices.

Each had called out to her.

Each name had pulled at a piece of her soul, one clawing at the bleeding remains of love, the other a whisper of escape she didn’t understand, but needed.

And still, she didn’t care who the masked man was.

She just knew who Shen Xiao was, and what he had done to her.

"I’m going with him," she said, lips cracked and trembling, but her voice rang clear, even in its rawness, she was clear and decided. Her gaze didn’t waver from the figure in the mask. "I choose him."

The room stilled.

The silence that followed was not peace, but the eye of a storm.

Shen Xiao took a single step forward, grief flashing across his cold composure. "Yueyao..."

"Don’t," she hissed, the sound brittle as broken glass. "Don’t call my name... Not with that mouth... not after everything you did."

He stopped in his footsteps, like her words had struck a bone-shivering chill.

The masked man didn’t move and didn’t react. He stood still, as if waiting had always been his role. Cloaked in silence, he seemed more like a shadow wearing skin than a man.

Still, he raised a gloved hand waiting for her to hold his palm.

"Come," he said, voice muffled but steady, carrying the weight of certainty. "Come with me, Yueyao."

She didn’t question and didn’t hesitate.

Even in her weak state, even when shackled to a bed, her soul tilted toward him like a compass finding north.

Not because she trusted him.

But because she didn’t trust Shen Xiao anymore. Because she didn’t have any hopes when it came to Shen Xiao.

And that was enough.

Yueyao’s chest rose and fell in shallow, painful breaths. The straps around her wrists itched and burned, but she didn’t look at them. Her focus was on the masked figure. A stranger, yes, but one who hadn’t yet betrayed her.

The man extended a gloved hand. "Come, Yueyao."

She didn’t hesitate.

Even though she was bound, even weak, something in her spirit leaned toward him.

Shen Xiao stepped forward quickly, desperation breaking through his usual control. "He’s not who you think he is. You don’t know what you are walking into....."

"I knew what I was walking into when I loved you," she said, her voice shaking. "And I walked in anyway. That was my biggest mistake, my only regret."

His jaw was tightly clenched. The mask he wore, the emotional one, cracked just a little. "I never meant to hurt you."

"And yet," she whispered bitterly, "you did."

A loud mechanical click echoed through the room.

The security bars that lined her bed retracted into the floor with a slow hiss, and the straps around her wrists loosened on their own. Shen Xiao’s eyes widened.

"What did you do?" he asked the masked man, stepping protectively forward.

"I didn’t do anything," the masked figure said calmly. "She chose me by herself."

Yueyao sat up with effort, arms trembling, and her body aching. She gripped the edge of the bed, determined not to show how broken she still was. Not in front of Shen Xiao. Not again.

She stood.

She wobbled without a care.

And then the masked man stepped closer, catching her gently by the elbow. His touch was firm but careful, respectful, and protective.

"Let her go," he said to Shen Xiao. "She doesn’t belong to you anymore."

Shen Xiao’s fists clenched, his entire body taut with restrained rage, and with something deeper.... Regret.

But he didn’t stop her.

Because he couldn’t.

Because she wouldn’t let him.

Yueyao looked back one last time.

Not at Shen Xiao, but at who she used to be when she loved him.

Then she turned away... and walked toward the man in the mask.

Gasp.

Yueyao’s body jerked violently, limbs twitching under the restraints.

A low hum filled the room, steady, mechanical, but impersonal. No beeping sounds, and no monitors. Just silence and the weight of stale air pressing against her skin.

Her mind clawed its way out of the nightmare, dragging her shattered consciousness with it. Her eyelids fluttered weakly, every blink sending dull aches rippling behind her eyes.

Her limbs were leaden, heavy with sedatives or worse. She tried to move..,.,....