From Best Friend To Fiancé (Savannah and Roman) novel Chapter 208

**TITLE: Dreams Folding Into Broken Time**

**Chapter 208**

**Chapter 125: Maybe It’s Justice**

Savannah

99

We came to a halt just outside what I presumed was my mother’s hospital room. The hallway was saturated with the sharp scent of disinfectant and lemon-scented wipes—a cleanliness that felt almost suffocating, too sterile to be comforting. My palms felt clammy, and a tight knot formed in my throat, making it hard to breathe.

“Should I knock?” I asked Dean, my hand already hovering uncertainly near the door, as if it might somehow provide me with the courage I lacked.

He shot me a look that suggested I had just proposed we call ahead for permission. “For what? So your fiancé can leap at me for letting you knock?” he muttered, his voice low and laced with sarcasm, before he swung the door open without waiting for my response.

I rolled my eyes at his dramatics. “You’re so over the top,” I whispered, but even as I spoke, my heart began to race, an erratic drumbeat echoing in my ears.

“And you’re stalling,” he pointed out, a hint of impatience creeping into his tone.

He wasn’t wrong, and I knew it.

The sound of the door clicking open resonated in the quiet hallway, louder than it had any right to be. The air inside the room felt colder, heavier, wrapping around me like a thick fog. Each step I took toward the bed felt as if I were trudging through molasses, the floor pulling me down, reluctant to let me approach.

Because every step brought me closer to her.

The woman who had given me life. The same woman who had stood by as my own world quietly crumbled around me.

The woman I loved, and loathed, and then loved again—over and over, until the lines between those emotions blurred beyond recognition.

But when I finally laid eyes on her, truly saw her, everything within me stilled to a haunting silence.

The strong, vibrant woman I had grown up with—the one who wore her confidence like armor and smiled even when the world conspired against her—was nowhere to be found.

The woman who once filled every room with her laughter and the lingering scent of her signature perfume, who never left the house without her bold red lipstick and glimmering wedding ring, had faded into a mere shadow of herself.

Now, she looked… diminished.

Fragile. A ghostly echo of the woman I once believed could withstand anything life threw her way. Her skin appeared pale, almost translucent beneath the harsh fluorescent lights. Her hands, resting delicately on her stomach, were thin and bruised from an endless parade of IV lines. A soft blue beanie covered her head, accentuating her fragility.

8:54 Thu, Dec 11

**Chapter 208**

She didn’t turn to acknowledge our entrance. Her gaze remained fixed on the window, where the sunlight struggled to pierce through the slats of the blinds. It was as if she were watching the world outside, while the one within her room slowly withered away.

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