Kneeling for a Second Chance Novel

---- Chapter 304, Sebastian lowered his head, pressing his brow against Valeria's forehead. He endured the pain that tore through both his body and mind. All he wanted to do was hold on to the person he longed for. He feared she might hate him. What he feared even more was that she wouldn't bother him and simply forget him altogether. In three years or maybe even ten years from now, she could have another man, forgetting all the wounds that Sebastian had left her with. In Valeria's world, he would become nothing more thana passerby. The thought alone struck Sebastian's chest like a blade.

He clutched it and slowly bent over. His face was drained of color, and sweat formed on his forehead. Even as Valeria reached out to support him, all she touched was the sharp ridges of his thin, bony back. He collapsed to the ground, just as he had two hours ago. The nurse rushed off to call the doctor. Valeria held him up on her knees, struggling to lift him up." Sebastian." Sebastian continued, "I had the mocha frappe you made. I ---- ordered takeout so many times, always leaving a note requesting you to make it. After you stopped working there, I never had it again.

I also ate the cakes you gave me. You said the fruits were dried by your grandmother..." "Stop right there, Sebastian..." Valeria clutched his hand, sliding her palm to his back, but she didn't have the strength to lift him. Her voice trembled, but she didn't know whether it was from fear or something else. "The tree in your yard? I kept it... We can go see it together..." His voice was getting weaker, and his breathing was getting more ragged. Valeria recalled what Calvin had said. Unbuttoning Sebastian's shirt, she revealed his pale, gaunt chest. 'There was a six-inch jagged scar.

Chest surgeries were rarely sewn with cosmetic care, so scars were normal. However, this one looked like a twisted centipede crawling across his skin. Valeria's hand trembled. Even the air felt thin, and she found it hard to breathe as she repeated what Calvin had said about Sebastian's surgery to the doctor. The doctor stabilized him, explaining that it was a chest spasm triggered by emotional strain and worsened by his frailty, which caused him to faint. He told her to stay and watch him through the night.

---- While he was on his way out, the doctor glanced at the blood dripping onto the floor. The nurse was treating the wound on Sebastian's hand while checking the IV line, and he wiped the sweat off his brow. "These youngsters nowadays... How could they pull off medical tape just like that..." Valeria sat at Sebastian's bedside. Sebastian slept. Inhis sleep, his frailty softened his sharp features. His hollowed cheeks made his nose more defined, and his brows looked even sharper. He always carried an aloof temperament in suits.

Now that he was frowning faintly in his restless slumber, he looked a lot more like a human. Valeria buttoned Sebastian's shirt closed. Her eyes lingered on the scar across his chest for a fleeting moment before she looked away and pulled the blanket over him. She scheduled a message to Kayla and Willow to be sent at 7: 00 am, letting them know she would be taking the day off. Tf she left now, she couldn't imagine how Sebastian would react. By the second half of the night, after Sebastian's IV drip was finished, exhaustion overtook Valeria. She slumped at the bedside, and her eyes closed.

At around dawn, light began to filter through the window. ---- Sebastian , who had been drugged into a shallow sleep, woke up incredibly early, still tensed up from everything that had happened. His throat burned and was incredibly dry, so he wanted some water. Even turning his head felt like a struggle. But amidst the sterile, disinfectant-filled air of the unfamiliar room, he caught a faint trace of a delicate fragrance-one that he knew very well. Sebastian smiled.