Too Late, Mr. Cooper: Your Bride Ran with Your Baby novel Chapter 194

Linton stood frozen, his blood turning to ice. A bitter cold spread through his limbs, as if he were stranded on a frozen mountain.

His voice was a raw, broken thing when he finally forced the words from his throat. “...Why?”

Liliana watched him in silence for a long moment, then suddenly, she smiled. “Because I wanted to live.”

“You know, I was on the verge of depression because of you.”

Liliana’s voice was soft.

Each word she spoke was a heavy blow, striking Linton’s heart with the force of a thunderclap.

“Do you have any idea what depression feels like? It’s like being abandoned by the entire world. Nothing brings you joy. Your mind is in a constant fog, and you can’t find a single reason to keep going.”

She continued to look at him calmly, but her eyes grew colder and colder.

A faint smile played on her lips, but her bright, beautiful eyes seemed to be weeping. She spoke slowly, deliberately.

“You get trapped in your own head, unable to find any meaning in life. Everything feels pointless, even the simple act of existing becomes a chore.”

“It’s like being a piece of driftwood in the ocean, tossed about by the waves, empty, with no place to belong. The world is so vast, yet there isn't a single corner for you.”

“In that world, everything is dark, oppressive, and suffocatingly cold. The numbness makes you want to scream, to go insane.”

As she spoke, her eyes gradually reddened. Her lips trembled, her gaze filled with pain.

“...I was searching in a dead, silent darkness, but I couldn’t find the way out.”

“And then, just when I was at my most hopeless, my most lost, when I had completely fallen into that icy darkness, a ray of light suddenly appeared from heaven, warming and illuminating my entire world.”

Liliana paused.

She took a deep breath, her cool, trembling fingers instinctively moving to her still-flat abdomen, where a new life was growing.

She struggled to compose herself, and after a long moment, she continued, her eyes glistening with tears.

“That light... was this child. It’s my angel, sent to save my decaying, withered life.”

Linton slowly lowered his head.

She had always been this strong, this exceptional. He knew that.

His lips trembled, a bitter, self-mocking smile forming. He suddenly felt a vast emptiness inside him, as if his heart had been hollowed out, leaving nothing but an endless void of fear.

A flicker of panic crossed his eyes.

Everyone, including Liliana herself, thought she was the one who was head-over-heels in love, the one who couldn't leave him.

But only he knew the truth.

The one who was desperately, hopelessly in love.

The one who couldn't leave.

That had always been him.