Black Rose in the Abyss Chapter 19

Bianca regained consciousness amidst the smell of disinfectant.

Opening her eyelids, she saw the familiar ceiling of the makeshift clinic and Maria's worried face.

"Child, you're awake?!"

Maria's voice choked with emotion. She quickly used a warm towel to wipe Bianca's forehead.

Bianca's mind cleared instantly. The collapsing rocks, the cramped darkness, the dripping warm blood... memory fragments rushed in.

She grabbed Maria's hand abruptly, her voice hoarse from weakness:

"Where is he? How is Dante?"

Maria looked at her anxious appearance, sighed softly, and stood up to pull open the curtain beside Bianca's bed with a swish.

On the hospital bed, Dante lay quietly.

His face was as pale as paper, his lips bloodless. His chest was wrapped in thick bandages, but the rhythmic rise and fall showed his steady breathing.

"He..." Bianca's heart remained suspended.

"Don't worry. The doctor said his life isn't in danger. Just significant blood loss and two broken ribs. He needs to rest well."

Maria comforted her, then seemed to remember something, her tone emotional.

"You two... when you woke up, you said exactly the same thing."

Bianca was puzzled.

Maria explained:

"He woke up an hour earlier than you. Before his eyes even opened, his first words were asking 'Where is Bianca? How is she?'"

"I told him you were fine, but he didn't believe it. He insisted on seeing for himself."

"We couldn't argue with him, so we had to move his bed next to yours. He stared at you for a good while, confirmed you were okay, and then fainted."

Bianca's gaze fell back on Dante's face. Complex emotions churned in her heart.

Was it gratitude for him risking his life to protect her?

Was it resentment for his past hurts?

Or was it a trace of heartache she wasn't even willing to admit to herself?

Maria spoke softly. "Child, he's the one who broke your heart, isn't he?"

Bianca didn't deny it. She nodded gently.

Maria looked at the unconscious Dante again and asked, "He got all these injuries trying to protect you too?"

Bianca nodded again, her throat feeling tight.

Maria let out a long sigh and gently patted her hand.

"This life is so long. Who doesn't make mistakes? What's important isn't what he did in the past, but what he is like now, and..."

She paused, her voice exceptionally gentle. "Is he willing to use all the good in the rest of his life to pay you back?"

Maria's gaze fell on Dante's head, which was tilted toward Bianca even in his coma. She whispered:

"I look at this boy, and his soul is almost gone. His soul... was tied to you long before you knew it. He can't break free, and he can't untie it."

Bianca was awakened by these words.

Maria's words were like a key trying to open the rusty lock on her sealed heart.

She looked at Dante's defenseless sleeping face, remembering his intermittent confession in the darkness and the sentence "I want to be with you for a long, long time." The hard ice seemed to be melting quietly, but what followed was deeper confusion and helplessness.

That night, Bianca tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Early the next morning, she asked Roxy to handle her transfer procedures, insisting on returning to New York immediately.

Before leaving, she sat by the hospital bed, unfolded a piece of stationery, and remained silent for a long time. Finally, she wrote only one line:

Dante, until your wounds are healed, do not come find me.

It was a double entendre. She gently tucked the note onto Dante's bedside table.

Then, she turned resolutely. Supported by Roxy, she left the clinic, left the small island that had stirred the lake of her heart again, and temporarily left the man who proved his regret with his life but whom she didn't know how to face.

Outside the window, the scenery flew backward. Bianca leaned back in the seat, forcing all the churning emotions deep back into her heart.