Love Rents A Room
Chapter 192: He Begged Her

Chapter 192: He Begged Her

Joanne gently moved her hand from his back, resting it on her lap. Her warmth didn’t disappear—but it cooled. There was a dignity rising in her now, a bitter truth clawing its way out of her.

"I was always the afterthought. The quiet girl everyone wanted to just... endure, just because. And now you..." She turned her head slightly, though her eyes still stared into the dark. "You too..."

The silence that followed was brutal.

She swallowed, but the lump in her throat remained. "Do you think I’m so easy to love because I’ll stay, even after all that?"

Her question wasn’t rhetorical. It was raw. Real. And the wound it revealed was deeper than any he had expected.

Jeffrey heard every word—felt every word—and he wasn’t angry. How could he be?

She had every right to ask that. He had always told her to stand tall, to believe in her worth, to stop letting people walk over her. How could he now be surprised when she held him to the same standard?

It hurt—God, it hurt—but he didn’t flinch from the pain. This wasn’t the end. It couldn’t be the end.

He reached for her hand.

She tried to pull away, her reflex still sharp with pain. But he didn’t let go. Gently, insistently, he held her hand again—and again—until her fingers stopped resisting and lay, quiet, in his grasp.

"You are not a doormat," he whispered, pressing a kiss to her knuckles; soft and trembling. "You’re not an afterthought. And Jo..." he looked up, his voice breaking with devotion, "you’re not here to endure me of all people."

His lips brushed her hand again, reverent. "If only I could show you what you mean to me. If I could rip open my chest and let you see how I carry you in my heart... You’d see it. You’d feel it. I try—I swear, Jo, I try... to show it in every way I know how. And I fail. I fail you more often than I want to admit. But I’m learning. And if you’ll let me... I want to keep learning how to love you better."

His voice caught in his throat. "I’m terrified. Terrified of losing you. And here I am, bare in front of you... no defenses, no pride. Just me. Lowest I’ve ever been. If I have to beg, I will. I’ll kneel at your feet. I’ll atone however you ask. Just please... don’t leave me in the dark again. Don’t let this become my punishment. Without you... I’ll fade, Jo. I’ll rot in this loneliness. Only you... Only you can bring me back."

He pressed kiss after kiss to her hand, slow, aching, each more desperate than the last. Joanne closed her eyes, letting his words settle. Letting them curl around her guarded heart like warm breath on glass.

She had listened.

As much as she wanted to close off, as much as she knew she should walk away for her own sanity, she couldn’t silence his voice in her head. Couldn’t forget how his arms had felt around her when everything was falling apart.

And now... now, his words made sense.

She remembered that morning when Caruso attacked. It was the morning after she and Jeffrey had first made love. He had been cold. Closed off. Angry.

He had just discovered the truth that morning, hadn’t he? That she was the one he was supposed to marry. That she had cost him everything.

And yet... he came back.

She remembered it clearly now.

He had left—yes. But he had also returned.

And not just for closure. Not out of guilt. He had come back for her.

He had stood between her and Caruso. He had fought like a man possessed. He had saved her life.

It stung, the possibility that he had been the reason her life was endangered in the first place. But hadn’t Caruso always been a threat? A monster who escaped prison to come after her?

Jeffrey may have opened a door by accident... but he had also slammed it shut.

He hadn’t left her alone.

He had come back.

He had saved her.

Maybe it was love. Maybe it was forgiveness. Or maybe it was simply who she was: rational, compassionate, stubbornly loyal. But whatever it was... that ’but’ always remained.

But—he still fought for her.

But—he still came back.

And that mattered.

That always mattered.

Joanne’s thoughts spiraled: painful, conflicted, but no longer clouded.

It’s him. It’s Jeffrey.

Yes, he had stumbled. His rage and drunkenness had led him down a terrible path, one that could have destroyed her. And yet... he hadn’t allowed it to happen. He had stepped into the darkness, on the verge of becoming a beast of a man, but ultimately found the strength to return to the light.

He didn’t just wallow in guilt. He didn’t run away and hide from the consequences. He acted.

He had come back and saved her. He had stood between her and Caruso. He had made sure she survived.

And afterward? He stayed.

When Congressman Campbell waged war on her company, it wasn’t her family or her allies who showed up.

It was Jeffrey.

He took on a congressman for her. Quietly, efficiently, and with a ferocity only someone who truly cared could have mustered.

He saved her company. He brought order. He gave her space to breathe, to grow, to rebuild.

He encouraged her to step into a bold new world—into the world of the elites. He had wanted her there, proud and confident as always.

Yes, there was still Heather. That bitter taste hadn’t left Joanne’s mouth. That strange, almost twisted dynamic they shared. But now, Joanne’s memories pulled her deeper into the truth.

Heather had whispered something cruel that day: "He tried to kill you." At the time, Joanne dismissed it, believing it was a lie, a cheap trick to make her doubt him.

But maybe... Heather hadn’t lied.

Maybe she had just weaponized a truth she didn’t fully understand and twisted it to suit her.

And even if Jeffrey had once fallen that low, he had climbed back. And he had climbed for her.

Come to think of it... Even the recent debacle... He wasn’t protecting Heather, was he?

The furrow between her eyebrows released as she thought about it.