The Broken-hearted She And The Icy He (Lily and John) novel Chapter 204

Chapter 204 Crushed Hopes

She couldn’t very well voice the thought out loud–it would hurt his pride. So instead, she closed her eyes halfway and stretched out her leg like a soldier accepting her fate.

When James lowered his gaze, the bloody wound on her calf came into view.

The rest of her skin was far too fair, smooth, and delicate. Against that pristine canvas, the raw, torn flesh, on her calf looked even more jarring.

It made his eyes sting. His chest, too.

Without betraying any emotion, he lowered his lashes and focused intently on treating the wound.

Lily was bracing herself, half expecting him to mess it up and make things worse. But to her surprise, his touch was steady and skilled. By the time he sprinkled the hemostatic powder, she barely felt any pain.

Concerned she might aggravate the wound again, he decided to wrap it up.

The light in the room was soft.

It bathed him in a warm glow, softening the edges of his cool, angular features. In that moment, he looked even more breathtaking than usual.

As she stared at the perfection of his profile, her heart began to race uncontrollably.

She realized she might truly be falling for him.

She knew some questions shouldn’t be asked–but her thoughts were scattered, her heart pounding. She couldn’t hold back. “James, if someone you don’t like tried to get close to you… even wanted to be with you… would you feel disgusted?”

If he said no, maybe she could finally tell him the truth–that she was Leila.

James didn’t answer right away.

His thoughts drifted to what had happened earlier that day.

A young woman on an electric scooter had gone the wrong way and deliberately scraped a huge chunk of paint off his car. When confronted, she claimed she couldn’t pay for the damage but offered herself as compensation. He had refused her, of course.

The repair cost meant nothing to him.

But he had no intention of letting her off the hook.

That kind of behavior–dangerous, reckless–could easily cost lives one day. He had told Ashton to call police.

When the woman realized what was happening, she panicked. She ranted about how this kind of thing was normal in web dramas–the female lead damages the male lead’s car, offers her body in return, and the two fall in love and have a happy family.

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Chapter 204 Crushed Hopes

James had spent over four years in a coma. He didn’t know much about current trends or those kinds of shows.

But even so, he found the whole situation absurd.

It wasn’t that he looked down on women.

On the contrary, he believed women–seemingly delicate as they might appear–held up half the sky. He respected those who were independent and hardworking.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t find someone like her revolting.

If any woman could crash into a man’s car and then claim it was romantic to throw herself at him… what kind of world would that be?

In his opinion, she’d had her brain rotted by short dramas.

When she made another move toward him, he immediately had Ashton pull her aside and proceed with the police report.

Snapping back to the present, he answered plainly, “Yes. I’d be disgusted. Even nauseated.”

Lily’s fleeting sense of hope–of excitement–shattered in an instant.

Her past with John had already been a disaster. She had given everything, throwing herself into it like a moth to flame.

After such a painful loss, even though she tried to stay optimistic, her heart still trembled at the idea of love. She couldn’t help but be timid, hesitant.

She was terrified that pouring her heart into someone again would only end in more heartbreak.

Worse yet, what if her love became a burden to James?

If even the idea of her wanting to get close made him feel sick…

The only thing she could do now was let him see her scarred, ugly face on Sunday. Let him pull away for good.

Then he could get on with his life.

The Luke family elders would no longer worry about him being interested in another man.

He’d meet someone new. Get married. Have children.

And she would hold up her end of the deal. She’d help him secure that divorce. They’d go their separate

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