The Love I Begged For Was Never Real novel Chapter 199

Nora picked up a pencil, forcing all of her focus onto the blank paper in front of her, trying to sketch the sweeping lines that would represent 'radiance.'

But after hours of drawing, the lines only tangled and overlapped into a chaotic mess. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't produce a satisfactory draft.

The aggressive scratching of the graphite against the paper sounded incredibly frantic in the dead-silent office.

Intrusive memories kept flashing through her mind.

That rainy afternoon in the backyard of St. Jude's, when Gideon had shielded Giselle with his own back from the director's cane.

The dead of night, when Gideon would grip Nora's wrist in his nightmares, desperately calling out Giselle's name.

The crisp, sickening sound of those one hundred slaps echoing through the atelier, completely ruining Janie's face.

And Julian sitting in his office, his usual refined facade dropping to reveal his ruthless, predatory true colors.

She was supposed to draw 'radiance.' Julian's requested design concept was 'as luminous as the sun and moon, as radiant as Giselle.'

But her world was nothing but endless darkness and damp despair. How could she possibly conjure up light to offer the very person who had stolen all of hers?

The pencil moved faster and faster, the tip gouging the paper with a harsh, venting intensity.

The once-fluid inlay paths grew chaotic, the thick lead violently scribbling over and ruining the initial design framework.

Snap.

Unable to endure the silent torment a second longer, Nora violently hurled the expensive pencil onto the desk.

It rolled off the edge and hit the floor, breaking with a sharp crack.

Drained of all energy, she slumped back into her chair and stared up at the shadows on the ceiling.

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