?<strong>Chapter 437:</strong>


    The rooftop was locked. He sat on the steps beneath the moon, its silver light cutting through the windows, casting jagged shadows across the floor. A half-empty pack of cigarettes sat beside him. His white shirt was crumpled, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He sat with his legs spread, elbows resting on his knees, staring into space as if lost in a dark abyss of thought.


    As Katherine approached, he crushed thest of his cigarette beneath his shoe without a word.


    She was worried. “You okay?”


    Shawn, ever the lone wolf, wiped a hand across his face, brushing away any emotion that threatened to surface. “I’m fine. Just tired.”


    pile of cigarette butts at his feet suggested otherwise. Katherine gave a small nod. “Take care of yourself.”


    She wasn’t nning to stay. There was a line she couldn’t cross with him, a boundary she feared would blur if she lingered too long. But just as she turned to leave, his voice stopped her. “Katherine… can you stay? Just for a little while?”


    Katherine hesitated. She had always believed that men didn’t show weakness. They didn’t let the cracks show. Yet here was Shawn, raw and vulnerable, and it tugged at something deep within her. Against her better judgment, she almost wanted to run to him, to close the distance that had always kept them apart.


    Her rtionship with Shawn was like wandering into a perilous realm, where the seductive pull of greed and desire gradually chipped away at her resolve.


    Snapping out of her thoughts, Katherine said, “I should go. I need to check on Aurora.” The excuse was flimsy, even transparent, but Shawn understood the message she wasn’t saying.


    He offered a faint, almost resigned smile. “It’s alright. Don’t worry about what I said earlier.”


    The words barely left his lips before guilt seeped into Katherine’s chest, settling like a bruise that wouldn’t fade. It weighed her down, yet her rational mind told her she was making the right choice.


    They had been at the hospital for two long, exhausting days, running on fumes and little sleep.


    By the third day, Lily showed up, bringing food for Shawn. She found him in the hospital garden, and this time, Shawn didn’t turn her away. His gratitude showed in the way he epted her small gesture of kindness. People often said Shawn was as cold as ice, a man who kept the world at arm’s length. But even a cold man had a heart. And Shawn, beneath hisyers of reserve, could certainly tell who was good to him.


    “Shawn, are you okay? I’ve got friends here at the hospital. Let me know if I can do anything to help.” Shawn hadn’t shaved, and though it didn’t take away from his looks, the stubble gave him a rugged edge. “I’m fine.”


    Lily’s eyes filled with concern. Why was it that a good man like Shawn always seemed to be caught in the crosshairs of life’s misfortunes?


    Before meeting him, she only knew him from afar, as the man who held an unwavering, serious affection for Katherine. But once she got to know him better, she saw so much more—the weight of the Watson family’s troubles resting solely on his shoulders.


    During the hardest days, anyone in Illerith could have crushed him underfoot, yet he had wed his way through the storm. Still, happiness had remained elusive for him.


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