?<strong>Chapter 1230:</strong>


    “It hurts when I touch it.”


    He couldn’t fathom why he had lied. He knew once she softened, she would gravitate back toward him.


    Laney sat up, her fingers dipping into the ointment, and tenderly applied it to his wound.


    The cool, acrid scent of the ointment filled the air around them.


    Cliff observed her reddened eyes and nose, thought of her crying in secret, and felt a pang in his heart.


    “Laney, let’s revert to how things were,” he proposed, his voice deep and resonant.


    “Back to three years ago, before you had feelings for me. Being involved with me invites numerous challenges and rumors. I can’t stand to see you suffer because of them.”


    Laney paused.


    “Is it really my suffering you can’t bear, or is it that you can’t bring yourself to love me?”


    Cliff’s lips pressed tightly together, and he remained silent. Laney’s eyes filled with tears.


    Just then, a knock sounded at the door.


    “Cliff, are you in there?” Juliet’s voice called out.


    Laney jolted back to reality, her heart sinking. The realization that Juliet was staying over that night struck her cold.


    Cliff tucked away the ointment with practiced care. After a brief exchange with Laney, he strode to answer the knock at the door.


    The door creaked open to reveal Juliet, now draped in Cliff’s ck shirt — a sight that made Laney’s heart constrict.


    Laney squeezed her eyes shut against the pain and burrowed under the covers.


    Though Cliff’s jaw tightened at Juliet’s brazen choice of attire, he held his tongue in Laney’s presence and quietly pulled the door closed behind him.


    Juliet chuckled.


    “I knew you were in here. Did I interrupt something?”


    “Why are you wearing my clothes?” Cliff’s words came out sharp as steel.


    “Go change.”


    “I don’t have anything else here. What did you expect after my shower? That I’d parade around naked?”


    “I’ll have someone bring you proper clothes,” Cliff replied, reaching for his phone with swift determination.


    “Cliff, if you want your cousin to give up her foolish dreams, you can’t keep wavering.”


    Juliet caught his wrist.


    “I knocked deliberately—let her see. Consider this shirt my souvenir, and it’ll vanish with tomorrow’s sun.”


    Cliff’s face frosted over as he jerked away from her touch.


    “My rtionship with her isn’t your concern.”


    Juliet’s lips curved into a knowing smile.


    “Then keep dancing around the inevitable. You’re only poisoning your own peace.”


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