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Chapter_169
Whitney’s heart pounded in her chest as she sprinted down the sterile hospital corridor, her legs shaky but driven by sheer desperation. Each step felt like an eternity, the urgency inside her growing with every breath she took. The pain that shot through her body seemed to come second to the overwhelming need to reach him. Tiana’s hesitant voice calling after her faded into the background as she focused only on the scene ahead—the scene she never thought she would witness.
The doctor’s bloodied figure stumbled down the hall, his face contorted in horror and agony, clutching his neck as if trying to hold his life together. The chaos around him was palpable. Hospital staff were scrambling, their voices rising in panic, but none of it seemed to matter. Whitney’s mind only registered one thing: Ludwik.
Something had snapped inside him. He had lost control—utterly, completely.
“What happened to him?” Whitney whispered under her breath, but even she knew the answer. The destruction, the violence—it was all a result of the grief, the betrayal, the weight of everything pressing down on him. His mother’s critical condition, the shock of the revelations about her failing kidneys, the overwhelming chaos—it had shattered him in a way nothing else could.
Tiana wheeled her closer, but Whitney could already see the chaos unfolding. From the open ICU door, the sounds of breaking glass and overturned furniture reached her ears. Loud, violent thumps shook the very foundation of the hospital, and it felt as though the entire place was trembling with the force of Ludwik’s destruction.
“Ludwik!” Whitney shouted, her voice cracking as she reached the door. But her call was drowned out by the storm inside.
The sight that greeted her was a nightmare. Ludwik, wild-eyed and heaving, was throwing objects around with frantic, uncoordinated movements, as though he were being consumed by something far darker than mere anger. His normally composed, sharp demeanor had splintered, shattered like the glass on the floor around him.
“Ludwik, stop!” Whitney cried, her heart breaking at the sight of him. He was lost—broken, furious, and spiraling out of control. He didn’t seem to hear her. He didn’t seem to see her. He was lost in a frenzy, destroying everything in his path.
Tiana grabbed Whitney’s arm, her voice trembling with fear. “Whitney, he’s not himself. He’s not in control. We have to get out of here.”
But Whitney didn’t move. She couldn’t. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from Ludwik, from the man she once knew, now unrecognizable in his pain. This was her fault. She had been part of the chain of events that had led to this destruction. Her heart twisted with guilt, but at the same time, an undeniable need to reach him—to pull him back from the edge of madness—burned within her.
“Ludwik!” she cried again, her voice frantic. “Please, listen to me! You’re not alone. I’m here.”
For a brief moment, time seemed to slow. His frantic movements faltered, and their eyes locked. His were wide with something far more primal than the cold fury he had shown before. There was pain there, a raw, unbearable pain. His expression softened, just for a heartbeat, before it quickly twisted back into anger.
“No!” he shouted, his voice hoarse. “You don’t understand! You’ve ruined everything! You destroyed my family, and now… now I’ve lost my mother too. There’s nothing left!”
The pain in his voice hit her like a physical blow. Whitney’s heart shattered for him. She knew exactly what he was feeling. The weight of betrayal, the crushing loss—it was suffocating. She couldn’t let him drown in it. She couldn’t let him fall into this madness, no matter how deep his pain went.
“Ludwik, please,” she begged, her voice trembling as she took a step toward him. “I never meant for any of this to happen. I… I thought I was doing the right thing. Please, you have to believe me.”
His eyes flickered with something like recognition, but it quickly morphed into a renewed anger. “It’s too late for apologies, Whitney,” he spat bitterly. “Too late for anything. You think your words will fix this?”
“I don’t know if I can fix everything,” she said, her throat tight with emotion. “But I can try. I can make it right, for you, for your mother, for everything we’ve lost. But you have to stop this. You’re hurting yourself.”
Ludwik’s breathing became erratic, and he suddenly collapsed to the floor, his body trembling uncontrollably. For a moment, he looked lost—broken beyond recognition. Whitney’s heart tightened, and she rushed to his side, kneeling beside him.
“I can’t lose you, Ludwik,” she whispered through the tears that had started to fall. “Please, don’t do this to yourself.”
The room fell into silence. The chaos around them seemed to freeze, suspended in time. The wreckage of the room, the remnants of their shattered world, hung in the air like a thick fog. Finally, Ludwik’s voice broke the stillness.
“I don’t know if I can ever forgive you,” he said, his voice rough, full of grief and bitterness. “But… maybe, just maybe, we can start over. For the sake of what’s left.”
Whitney’s breath caught in her throat. Hope flickered in her chest like a fragile flame. Maybe, just maybe, there was a way back from this after all. Maybe, despite everything, there was still a chance for them.
And as Ludwik’s eyes met hers once again, there was a flicker of something—something more than hatred. A crack in the wall of anger that had kept them apart.
Maybe, just maybe, they could heal.
