Chapter 81

• Hades’s POV
• The door clicked softly shut behind Anita, and the silence that followed felt like a heavy weight pressing down on me. I watched her retreating figure until it disappeared from view, every instinct screaming at me to follow her, to close the distance that stretched between us. But I stayed rooted, my heart pounding with the effort of holding back.
• As soon as she was gone, a sudden pain gripped my chest, sharp and unrelenting. I staggered, pressing a hand to my heart, struggling to draw breath. A cough tore through me, and the edges of my vision blurred. The exertion from the past few days—the sleepless nights, the constant worry—had taken its toll. But none of it compared to the ache in my chest, an ache that only worsened when she left the room.