Chapter 2190

Before anyone could respond, Nicholas planted both palms against the mattress and forced himself upright, sweat beading along his hairline.

“He’s right. I don’t need any of you.” His voice scraped like iron dragged across stone.

Elena rushed forward, hands outstretched to steady him.

Nicholas shook her off, impatience flashing sharp and sudden. “Don’t.”

Hurt flared in Elena’s eyes. “Nicholas, please—listen to me. Don’t be so stubborn. I’m begging you.”

Since his childhood, Nicholas’s fragile health had kept Elena in a constant state of vigilance. She had always seen him as gentle, compliant. Now, watching that gentleness harden into something fierce and dangerous, she wondered when her soft-spoken boy had vanished.

Nicholas drew a long, measured breath, as if trying to suck the stale air from the room. His shoulders lifted, then fell with a tightly restrained tremor. “Elena, if you really want me to be okay, stop assigning people to follow me.”