Breaking Mr. Cold (Giselle and Donovan) novel Chapter 512

Donovan's mind grew hazy under the grip of a high fever. His body burned like it was being roasted alive, his head pounding so violently that sleep became impossible. His thoughts scattered, and he could remember nothing at all.

Gradually, his consciousness began to blur. He no longer had the strength to feel sorrow, nor the will to remember. Strangely, there was a hint of twisted relief in that numbness. He didn't want to wake up. At least in this feverish haze, he could not think of her, nor feel the suffocating weight in his chest.

He prayed the fever would simply take his life.

When the ever-attentive Adrian gently pushed open his bedroom door the next morning and saw how ill Donovan was, he immediately informed the Kanes.

Knowing it would be impossible to take him to a hospital, Dorothea quickly summoned their family doctor to the house.

At first, Donovan resisted the doctor's approach, but under Dorothea's orders, Adrian and the household staff forcibly restrained him. The doctor administered a shot to bring down his fever, then wrote a prescription and sent someone to the hospital to get the medicine.

The ordeal lasted for more than an hour. After taking the medicine, Donovan finally drifted back to sleep. Perhaps it was the sedative effect of the drugs, but he slept soundly through the night. Though his dreams came one after another, he didn't wake until late the next morning.

A beam of sunlight streamed through the window. The fever had subsided, and the ache that had tormented his body had temporarily faded. For the first time in days, the heavy cloud over his heart lifted slightly.

He sat up weakly, propping himself against the headboard, and stared blankly out the window. After a long pause, he lit a cigarette out of habit.

The phone on his nightstand rang. He saw it was Ethan, but feeling too exhausted to speak to anyone, he hung up immediately.

He hadn't planned to look at his phone, but his hand moved on its own. He opened his photo album and scrolled through a few casual snapshots of Giselle. His gaze lingered on her face.

He sat there, staring at her photo in a daze, tracing every strand of her hair with his eyes as if memorizing her face all over again. He was so absorbed that he forgot about the burning cigarette between his fingers.

It wasn't until the heat reached his skin that he flinched, startled back to reality. He crushed the cigarette into the ashtray and exhaled shakily.

Time slipped by mercilessly.

Donovan spent half a month in a daze, living like a hollow shell. He endured the most painful, miserable days of his life, yet somehow he neither broke down nor lost his mind.

After that, he could no longer feel true joy. His already cold expression grew even colder, his words became few, and any remaining warmth within him turned to ice.