Chapter 266: Missing Him
Catherine quietly slipped back into Maximilian’s ICU room.
For a long moment, she simply stood by the doorway.
The machines continued their steady rhythm, the monitor tracing gentle green waves across the screen, but everything else remained painfully still.
The doctors called it resting.
She still couldn’t bring herself to believe it. Silence had never suited Maximilian.
In her previous life, he had been the infuriating prince who had grown up beside her, forever finding ways to unsettle her heart before becoming the terrifying king who stood against the entire continent.
In this life, he had somehow become even more impossible to ignore. He appeared everywhere—lecturing students with infuriating confidence, stealing her attention whenever she buried herself in research, quietly solving problems before she even realized they existed, and spoiling her with such shameless devotion that she’d gradually forgotten what it felt like to stand entirely on her own.
Now... He simply lay there. Too quiet. Too still.
She walked to his bedside and gently gathered one of his hands between both of hers before lowering her cheek onto it.
The warmth was still there.
She closed her eyes.
"I found my son, Maximilian..."
The whisper barely escaped her lips. Fresh tears slipped free before she even realized she was crying again.
"I found him..." Her shoulders trembled. "And he’s standing on his father’s side... On the side of the one who watched as he was killed..."
She laughed softly through her tears. The irony!
"Fitzgerald Rathbourne... I’m sure he’s Cassian." She tightened her hold around his hand as though drawing strength from it. "He’s all grown up."
Her voice cracked. "He even resembles my father." The irony hurt too much to laugh at. "I thought... for a moment... that he was Father."
She shook her head. "But no..." Her fingers trembled against his skin. "It was Cassian."
"My little boy..."
She lowered her forehead against his hand again. "I couldn’t protect him."
The guilt she had buried for two lifetimes reopened with merciless force. "He died looking for me..." Her breathing faltered. "He must have thought I’d abandoned him."
Another sob escaped before she managed to swallow it back.
"I wasn’t there."
She remained like that for a long while, speaking to him in broken fragments, saying things she had no intention of ever telling another living soul.
Eventually, the silence became unbearable.
"I don’t want to do this alone anymore."
Her voice was small. Much smaller than the woman who had pointed a loaded gun at Fitzgerald only an hour earlier.
"I know Dorian is the one who deserves every ounce of this hatred."
She smiled bitterly.
"But if I can’t tell you... then who do I tell?"
She let out a shaky laugh.
"You’ve completely ruined me."
Her thumb absentmindedly traced the back of his hand.
"You kept standing beside me through everything."
"When Father was sick... When I panicked... When I couldn’t think...You were always there."
She lowered her eyes.
"And now you’ve left me to fight alone."
The words came out almost accusingly.
"That’s unfair."
Her lips trembled again.
"I don’t want to fight my son. What if he refuses to listen? What if I have to choose between him and..."
She couldn’t finish.
Her mind wandered instead to another fire. To another lifetime. To the pyre. To the man whose hand never let go of hers even as the flames swallowed them both.
She squeezed Maximilian’s fingers.
"You idiot..." A tear landed on the back of his hand. "You did all that for me... You burned my body just because I asked...And then you climbed into the flames yourself."
She laughed bitterly.
"I’m actually angry at you."
She lifted her head to glare at his sleeping face. "It should’ve been me lying there. At least I wouldn’t be this stressed."
Another sniffle escaped.
"Why are you making me clean up your mess, Moosemilian?"
She poked the back of his hand with one finger.
"You were always the smarter one. I know you planned something. You always have three plans hidden behind the one everyone else sees."
Her brows furrowed.
"But I can’t find it."
"Dorian’s connected everywhere. He has politicians... Scientists... Money... How am I supposed to pull the rug out from under someone like that?"
She sighed heavily before rubbing both hands over her face.
"I don’t even want to tell you all this." A weak smile tugged at her lips. "I know you’re listening. You’re just pretending to sleep because you’re lazy."
Her voice became quieter.
"...He’s started climbing into my bed." The smile disappeared immediately. "I might kill him before I get the chance to destroy him."
She remained there, elbows resting on the mattress as she buried her face in her hands, too exhausted to notice the faintest twitch beneath her fingers.
Maximilian’s index finger moved. Just once. So slightly that only the monitor registered the subtle change.
Catherine never saw it.
"Stop me from going back..." Her fingers tightened around his hand. "Fitzgerald knows you’re alive. Maybe Dorian already knows too."
She lowered her head, her forehead resting lightly against the back of his hand. "But staying with him... that’s still the only way I can bring him down."
She closed her eyes.
"If you disagree..." A sad smile appeared on her lips. "...then wake up."
Silence answered her. Only the rhythmic beeping of the cardiac monitor filled the room.
Then, without warning, another sound broke through the stillness. A phone vibrated.
Catherine lifted her head. Her eyes landed on the second phone resting on the bedside cabinet.
Leon Aureus’ phone.
She only ever switched it on when she visited Maximilian. The number wasn’t known to anyone except the handful of people involved in whatever hidden game he had been playing.
The screen displayed a restricted number. She hesitated.
"Should I answer?" Her gaze drifted toward Maximilian’s sleeping face.
When no answer came, she let out a small sigh and accepted the call. A panicked male voice immediately filled her ear.
"Leon, the stock is slipping. We need a twenty-million-dollar margin deposit by four p.m. Eastern Time, or the entire block will be liquidated."
Catherine blinked.
The man continued speaking rapidly, throwing around financial terms that meant absolutely nothing to her.
She quietly ended the call.
The room fell silent once more. She stared at the phone for several seconds before looking back at Maximilian.
"What on earth is a margin deposit?"
Naturally... He didn’t answer.
She frowned. "They’re asking for twenty million dollars."
Tilting her head, she studied him for a moment before letting out a quiet breath. "I suppose that’s... pocket change to you."
She still remembered seeing his net worth. Twenty million was hardly enough to make him blink.
"But..." She looked at the phone again. "I don’t understand why they’re asking now." Her brows slowly knitted together.
"No..." She shook her head. "I’ll ask Jonathan."
Someone had to know what this meant.
She gently placed the phone back on the table before taking his hand once more. For a while, she simply held it in silence.
Then she smiled.
"Maybe..." Her voice softened. "...maybe this is how it was always meant to happen."
She intertwined her fingers with his. "The bracelet chose me." She laughed quietly to herself. "So maybe... I was always meant to finish this."
Whether she truly believed those words or whether she was merely searching for the strength to stand again, she couldn’t tell.
Either way... Her heart no longer felt quite as heavy.
She slowly rose from her chair. Before leaving, she looked at him one last time.
"Thank you..." The words carried more gratitude than she could ever explain. "Thank you for staying alive."
She bent over him and pressed a gentle kiss against his forehead, careful not to touch the edge of the bandage.
"It could have been so much worse." A shaky breath escaped her. "I’m glad you’re still here."
She smiled despite the tears threatening to return. "So don’t worry about me."
Her fingertips brushed through the strands of hair that had escaped beneath the bandage.
"I’ll be fine." She paused. "And..."
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"I won’t let him touch me."
Another tear escaped, sliding down her cheek before soaking into the edge of the white bandage wrapped around his forehead.
"I belong to you." Her lips trembled. "Only you, my love..."
She leaned closer until her forehead rested lightly against his. The familiar scent she had always associated with him was gone.
Only antiseptic. Bandages. Hospital disinfectant.
She closed her eyes. "I think..." A tiny laugh escaped through her tears. "...I’ve forgotten what you smell like."
The thought broke her heart far more than she expected. She brushed a trembling kiss against the corner of his temple.
"Come back to me soon, baby... I’m waiting."
She lingered there for one final heartbeat before beginning to pull away. But...
Something stopped her. A sharp gasp escaped her lips. Her entire body froze as she felt it...
Warm fingers had closed around her breast... firmly, and not by accident.
Her eyes flew wide open.