Chapter 43 I’m Not Leaving You
Iva’s P.O.V.
“For that love, please let me stay. Let me prove my love to you. I’m not asking you to forgive me now. Take your time. But don’t ask me to leave you. Please.” Will begs, and I finally give up.
“Fine.”
It doesn’t mean I’m forgiving him or giving him a second chance. It’s just that I’m too tired to argue with him anymore.
“Thank you so much. I promise I’ll fix everything.” He looks at me with hope in his eyes.
Fix! Can he really fix my broken heart? I don’t think so he can.
“Now you go. We’ll talk tomorrow.”
He shakes his head. “No fucking way. I’m not leaving you alone in this condition. Let me take care of you.” He lifts me in his arms, and I’m so damn tired of resisting.
I rest my head on his chest, close my eyes, and listen to my favourite melody, the rhythm of his heartbeat. The rhythm I thought I had lost forever. It still gives me immense peace. And I hate it.
He carries me into the bedroom and gently lays me down on the bed.
“Let me bring something for you to eat. I know you must not have eaten these days properly… because of me.” He looks at me with immense guilt and love in his eyes.
And it hurts. But he’s at fault.
He caresses my face with trembling fingers, and I lean into that touch as he apologises in a soft tone, “I’m so sorry.”
Seeing the same care he has shown me since day one, my heart melts in that moment. Something inside me shatters.
Three days.
Three days of silence, pain, and drowning in the thought that I would never feel this again. Never feel him again. Thinking that everything between us was a lie. What we felt was a lie. His love was a lie.
I just sit up and throw my arms around him before I can stop myself, burying my face in his chest as a sob escapes me. His arms wrap around me instantly.
“I thought I lost you…” I cry, clutching his shirt tightly. “That you’d never take care of me like this again, Will. I thought you were never going to come back to me.”
His grip on me tightens as he pulls me into his lap on the bed, holding me like he’s afraid I’ll vanish again. I feel his lips press against the top of my head, soft and full of pain.
Fuck. His scent. His warmth. The way he holds me and kisses me. I fucking missed everything about him.
“I’ve missed you so much, Will,” I say between sobs. “I’ve missed you like hell, every second, every breath. I just wanted to hear your voice once, to feel you again. And when I saw you that night with her, it broke something inside me.”
“I’m sorry, Professor,” he just apologises, pulling me closer.
Then the image of him kissing that woman flashes in my mind again, making me angry and hurting me even more. Why did he do this to me?
I pull away from him instantly and look into his eyes, angry and hurt. “Why did you do this to me, to us, Will?” I ask in a broken tone.
Why didn’t he trust me? Trust our love?
He touches my face, and I close my eyes, losing myself in his touch. “I’m sorry. I was so stupid. I got so angry that I even forgot who I was hurting, and I hurt my love. And when I hurt you, it hurt me even more, Professor. I’m so sorry.”
I open my eyes and stare into those grey eyes that now hold nothing but guilt and love. God, I missed those eyes.
But what’s the point of this now, when he didn’t even think about how much it hurt me to see him with someone else?
“You kissed someone else… right in front of me, Will.” I move off his lap and sit at the edge of the bed.
He panics when I move away from him. “Iva—”
“You didn’t just kiss her, Will… you looked at me like I was nothing. Like I was small and unwanted.” My throat tightens as I say, “You knew I was standing there. You wanted me to see.”
His mouth opens, eyes begging for forgiveness. As he reaches to touch my face, I pull away. “I was angry. I thought you lied to me. I didn’t know how to—”
I cut him off coldly. “I don’t want to hear anything, Will.”
I lie down, turning my back to him, tears silently soaking the pillow.
“I know, Iva. What I did to you was unforgivable. And I’m never going to forgive myself for it.” I hear his broken voice behind me, and a part of me wants to turn around, to fall into his arms and forget, but it’s not that simple.
He presses a soft kiss to my hair and wraps his arms around me, holding me close, as if his embrace can stop me from breaking apart. I try to control my emotions, not to melt into his touch.
"I'm going to get something for you to eat," he says quietly after a moment, releasing me and stepping away.
He walks to the door, pauses, and looks back at me with a pain that reaches all the way to me, no matter how much I try to block it.
“I’ll make sandwiches. The way you like them.”
I hear his footsteps fading out. And I’m left alone, lying on the bed with tear-soaked cheeks.
He returns a few minutes later with a tray in his hands.
As I sit up, he settles down in front of me and places the tray between us.
He picks up a sandwich and reaches forward to feed me, but I snatch it from his hand, scowling at him. “I can eat myself.”
He just nods before standing up.
As I eat, he starts cleaning my messed-up room. I hate the condition of my room right now, but in these three days, I was so hurt that it didn’t bother me to organise it.
“I’ll do it myself. You don’t have to do it.”
“I know you can, Iva. But I want to. Also, I’m the reason your room is so messed up. So let me.”
I don’t argue. I just keep eating.
As he picks up scattered tissues and wipes down my desk, I find myself wondering…
He must not have eaten either these past few days.
I feel the urge to tell him to eat something—but I stay quiet.
I hate myself for still caring about the person who shattered my soul.
Deep inside, I know I can never stop caring about him because I love him. And my heart can never stop beating for him.