Page 290 of Ruin Me Gently

If I left him to drown—

My lungs hitched, vision tilting.

I wasn’t this person.

I couldn’t do this.

Silas’ shout split through the rain. “Lilith!”

I ran. My feet pounded against the slick wood, the wind clawing at my soaked clothes, rain lashing at my skin.

Clark was going to die.

The yacht groaned, tilting further into the water, the dock cracking under my weight as I launched myself onto the unsteady deck. My stomach pitched with the movement, balance wavering as the entire world shifted around me.

The moment my feet hit the flooded boards, I slid, knees smacking down onto the drenched wood with a sharp crack.

I gritted my teeth, pushing myself up, fingers digging into the wood for leverage.

I was too late.

He was gone.

The dark, churning water had already pulled him beneath the surface. His body no longer a shape, no longer a shadow, just a void.

But I didn’t need to see. I knew where he was.

Gasping. Choking. Fading.

No.

No.

My legs moved before my brain caught up, I launched forward, throwing my entire weight into the flood.

I dove, arms outstretched, fingers searching blindly through the icy depths until they snagged fabric.

Got him.

I yanked.

Dead weight. Heavy. Limp.

My lungs burned, heart pounding violently as I fought against the pull of the sinking yacht, against the storm that wanted to swallow us both whole.

He wasn’t moving. Not kicking. Not struggling. Nothing.

I kicked harder, dragging him upward with every last ounce of strength left in me.

Too heavy. Too damn heavy.

My vision tunnelled, knees threatening to give out beneath me—

A pair of handsripped him from my grasp.

His guttural shout barely reached through the wind, the rain, the pounding in my skull. “What the hell are you doing?!”

He was seething, jaw clenched so tight I could hear his teeth grind over the storm, but still—still, he helped me.

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