"Not going to die," I answered flatly.

Eliana's brow knit. "Jared, don't say that. Gideon—"

"What about him?" I cut in, lifting my gaze to meet hers.

She pressed her lips together. "Your punch fractured his nasal bone. They're still treating it. More importantly, he was terrified—his emotions are unstable and his condition has gotten worse."

A fractured nose. Hearing that caused no ripple in me; if anything, the punch felt too light.

"So?" I asked.

Her usual lecturing tone snapped back at me, flustered by my coldness.

"Jared, I know you're angry, but can't you be rational? He was drunk and having an episode—he couldn't control himself! You're a normal person; how could you stoop to his level and hit him so hard?"

Here we go again.

I looked at her—the woman I'd loved for seven years, the woman who had almost become my wife—and suddenly she felt utterly foreign.

"Eliana," I said slowly, "just because he can't control himself, it's okay for him to smash a bottle over my head?"

Her eyes flickered. "He didn't mean it—"

"Then his insult to my mother was unintentional too?" I fixed my gaze on hers so she couldn't look away. "Was all that just ‘unconscious babbling'?"

"He was talking nonsense!" Eliana raised her voice. "Why are you picking on a patient?"

"Why can't I?" My tone cooled. "Just because he's ill, does that give him the right to trample my dignity, my feelings, and my mother's memory? Why must I always be the one to suffer and understand?"

"Eliana, the things you did back then, the guilt you carry—why should I pay the price for them?" I pushed.

Her face went blank. After all, she had never heard me speak so bluntly.

"That's not what I mean, Jared. Let's calm down, okay? I'm sorry—once Gideon calms down, we'll talk properly—"

I cut her off. "There's nothing to talk about. You don't owe me an apology either."

I closed my eyes; the cut at my temple throbbed. "Between us, it was already over when you went to the bar with him in your wedding dress."

Eliana's brow knitted tightly; her voice pitched higher. "I said that to settle him down! Can't you understand? I'm stuck in the middle here!"

My gaze was steady and empty. "Don't trouble yourself. Leave, Eliana. Go take care of the brother who can't do without you. He's more important than me."

She opened her mouth as if to protest, but only pressed her lips together and left the ward.

She didn't come back for the next few days.