Chapter 2000

Keegan's Adam's apple bobbed as he approached Stella. He reached down to take her phone away gently, "Stop looking at this. Let's go home."

Stella looked up at him, her eyes red and swollen. She pleaded, "Give it to me."

He pursed his lips before saying, "Let's go home first."

Her voice was hoarse with emotion. She said, "Give it to me."

Instead of handing over the phone, Keegan pocketed it. As Stella stood up to retrieve it, he enveloped her in his arms, his voice soft yet firm, "Don't look anymore. Whatever you want to know, I'll tell you."

Stella clung to his shirt, the image of his bloody figure in a hospital bed haunting her. "How much did you suffer?" she asked, her voice breaking. She trembled in his embrace, tears streaming down her cheeks, "You're even scared of injections, yet you had to endure thirteen stitches without anesthesia. Didn't it hurt?"

The videos on Jaylene's phone had shaken Stella deeply as they revealed Keegan's vulnerability and pain. She had documented