Chapter 25

After Stellan's marriage proposal was turned down, he locked himself in his room and cut off everyone. He grew even more distant, spending his days sitting still in his wheelchair, lost in his thoughts. The cold, lifeless voice from Lyra's phone that day replayed endlessly in his mind, each word slicing into his heart like a blade. He was afraid to sleep. The fire-filled nightmares that had finally begun to fade now twisted into visions of all the pain he'd once brought her. Each time, Stellan's hands appeared drenched in blood, while a blood-streaked Celine from his past fixed him with a hateful glare, her accusing voice flat and robotic, like an automaton. Every time he woke from a nightmare, he would lie motionless in the darkness for a long time before remembering his blindness and broken body. The Celine who had loved him without reservation was lost to him forever. Just as Lyra had said, his own hands had sent Celine to her death. Whenever the memory resurfaced, regret and