Time-Limited Love: A Contract Expired, Not Renewed novel Chapter 395

Instinctively, she reached out for something—anything—to steady herself, to keep the panic at bay.

Her hands fumbled through the darkness until they brushed against an arm, tense and braced right beside her.

Without thinking, she clung to it, her voice trembling as she whispered, “Landon?”

“I’m here.”

His voice came from somewhere above her head. With her arms wrapped around his rigid, outstretched limb, realization dawned on Zinnia.

He was shielding her with his own body, holding himself suspended and creating a pocket of space beneath him to protect her.

She couldn’t see anything in the pitch-black void, but she knew—both of them were in real danger.

Chunks of stone kept crashing down, hammering the ground around them, but the little haven Landon had made didn’t budge an inch.

For a moment Zinnia didn’t know what to say. Then, all she managed was a quiet, “Thank you.”

Landon understood what she meant.

His reply shook with effort, and beneath it she caught a faint thread of weakness.

“No need to thank me. I’m just… just trying to make up for the stupid thing I did before.”

He was talking about the avalanche—how he’d left her behind.

But the truth was, Zinnia hadn’t been angry that he’d abandoned her. No one could have predicted the avalanche; she didn’t blame him for running.

What hurt was that afterward, when he knew she was trapped under the snow, he did nothing. Worse, he’d suspected she’d faked the whole thing just to get him to come back.

Later, when she found out it was Noelle Jensen who’d answered his texts, the bitterness she’d held onto finally began to fade.

As for the rest, their relationship had always been transactional, bound by a contract. Landon owed her nothing—not in the ways that mattered.

So now, hearing him try to make amends, Zinnia felt it wasn’t necessary.

After all, even if Landon had been at her side during the avalanche, he wasn’t obligated to trade his life for hers.

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