Chapter 185.

The bathroom door clicked shut behind Christian. For a moment, the hospital room was completely still.

The lights had been dimmed hours ago, leaving only the soft glow from the monitor beside Kylie’s bed and the faint light spilling in from the hallway beneath the door.

Christian stood on the other side of the bathroom door for a few seconds.

He had needed the bathroom. That was the excuse. The truth was that he needed thirty seconds where nobody could see his face.

He ran cold water over his hands, then over the back of his neck.

Noah. His mother. Kylie. Everything seemed to have collided in the space of one night.

He stared at himself in the mirror.

He looked blank. He exhaled slowly. Then he dried his hands and walked back into the ward.

Kylie stirred. Her eyes opened slowly. For a second, she only stared at the ceiling. Then her gaze shifted.

Christian was walking back toward her.

She blinked.

"Did I wake you?" Christian stopped.

Kylie shook her head. "No."

He glanced at the clock.

"Almost five a.m. anyway." She said, following his gaze toward the clock.

4:52 a.m.

"That explains why everything feels like a dream."

Christian gave the faintest smile. "Hospital sleep."

"Terrible invention."

"Agreed."

He pulled the chair closer to her bed but didn’t sit immediately. "Are you okay with the food and services here? I can move you to a better hospital by morning."

Kylie watched him.

He was still Christian. Still the man who could turn almost anything into a joke. But the jokes weren’t reaching his eyes anymore.

He sat.

"I’ll remain here." Kylie shifted slightly beneath the blanket.

Her throat still hurt.

Her body felt strangely heavy, like she’d spent hours running even though she’d barely moved since waking.

"You should rest."

"I have been resting."

"You were unconscious." he remimded.

"That counts."

"It really doesn’t."

A tiny smile touched her lips. Then disappeared almost immediately. As if she was trying to hold herself back.

Silence settled between them.

Neither seemed in a hurry to break it.

Eventually, Kylie looked at him. "Christian?"

"Yeah?"

"I need to tell you something."

His posture changed immediately. His shoulders straightened, and his eyes stayed on her.

Kylie swallowed. "Your mother came to my apartment."

Christian’s expression went still. He already knew that, but not the details of it.

"My mother?"

She nodded. "Before all of this. She dropped by the day I...." She stopped. She couldn’t say it. She had unfairly blocked him again that day.

There were too many reasons why she stopped.

Christian didn’t force her to choose one. "You don’t have to explain why you didn’t tell me."

Kylie looked at him for a moment. Then she said quietly, "She was awful."

Christian’s mouth tightened.

Kylie looked toward the ceiling. "I won’t lie. I would’ve slapped her."

Christian’s eyebrows lifted slightly. If anything, he seemed amused. "I believe you, Blue."

"I don’t know where she got the audacity from to visit my home, be so rude, and try to make me feel beneath myself." Kylie went on, missing the nickname he had just called her.

Christian stared at her, listening attentively.

Kylie continued. "She walked into my apartment like she owned the place. She shouldn’t have been there."

"I know that." Christian let out a soft breath. "I’m so sorry,"

Her voice became quieter. "But she didn’t just talk about me."

Christian looked back at her. "What else did she do?"

Kylie hesitated. "She dug into my mother’s personal life."

His expression hardened. "What?"

"She talked about my mother." Kylie repeated.

Christian said nothing.

Kylie watched his face. "She brought her up like she was some piece of evidence against me."

His hands slowly curled into fists on his thighs.

"She said things about my mother that she had no right to know."

Christian’s voice was low. "What things?"

Kylie shook her head. "I don’t even know how she found out about some of them."

That seemed to make something inside him snap quietly into place.

"My mother researches people."

Kylie gave him a look. "That doesn’t make it normal. It doesn’t make it acceptable."

"No."

"She talked about my mother’s condition."

Christian went completely still.

Kylie continued before she could lose the nerve.

"She talked about the things my mother forgets. She talked about the way she stayed with my dad. She made it sound like I inherited some weakness from her."

Christian’s eyes darkened. "She said that?"

Kylie nodded.

"She basically told me I was like my mother. And then told me I was with you because of money, excitement, and attention."

Christian looked away. For several seconds, he said nothing. Then he rubbed a hand over his face.

"I am sorry."

Kylie frowned. "Don’t be."

He looked at her.

"Don’t apologize for her."

"I know."

"No, you don’t." Her voice softened. "You’re already doing it."

Christian went quiet.

Kylie watched him. "You didn’t send her there. You didn’t tell her to say those things."

He stared at her. There was something almost painful in the way he looked at her.

Kylie watched him carefully, and held his gaze. "She told me you were getting married in March."

Christian’s eyes met hers.

"She said you were going to marry Isabel."

He exhaled through his nose. "She wanted you to believe that." He added. "She wanted you to leave me alone."

Kylie didn’t answer.

Christian studied her face. "Did it work?"

Kylie looked away. He immediately seemed to regret asking.

"Sorry." he apologized.

"No." She looked back at him. "It did."

Christian said nothing.

"For a while," she added.

His gaze softened.

Kylie stared at her hands. "I blocked you because I didn’t know what to do."

"You don’t have to justify it."

She paused. "But I want you to understand."

Christian nodded.

"I was already afraid of getting involved with you."

Christain rubbed his thigh softly.

"And then your mother showed up and basically confirmed every horrible thing I was afraid of."

He didn’t argue. That was one of the things Kylie appreciated about him. He didn’t immediately defend himself. He just listened.