The Forgotten Pulse of the Bond - Chapter 67: Ash Between Their Steps

“Help me, please,” Bella pleaded, grasping his hands.His dark eyes, devoid of warmth, pierced through hers with an unsettling coldness. “Why should I mess with those goons to help you?” he asked callously.“I’ll do anything you say,” she said without thinking, desperate. “Just save me from them.”He demanded something that Bella had never anticipated even in her dreams.A contract marriage!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Bella Dawn was already in distress to pay her step father’s debts. To add her misery, her mother was diagnosed with liver disease and needed immediate transplant.Where would she get that much money?Then, like a cruel twist of fate, she accidentally encountered a handsome man, Theodore Reid, the enigmatic CEO of Ace Group.Rumors said that he was a ruthless businessman with a heart as cold as ice. Yet, to Bella, he was kind, rescuing her from the clutches of those who sought to exploit her.She was grateful to him until he demanded something weird, shattering her pervious assumptions. He wanted to marry her.NoHe wanted a contract marriage.In exchange, he would take care of her mother's treatment and compensate her generously at the end of their arrangement.For Theodore, it was a solution born out of necessity, a means to appease his grandfather's demands for an heir while he searched for the one who had once saved him, his angel.Bella’s appearance reminded him of his savior. So, he offered her a contract marriage. It was a temporary solution to his grandfather’s demand to get an heir until he found his angel.With no other options left, Bella reluctantly agreed to the terms of the contract. But little did she know it would test her resolve and resilience like never before.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~“Remember one thing, never fall in love with me,” he said, cold and dangerous.Bella gulped, nervous. “What if I do?” A sliver of defiance, a foolish question escaped her lips. She was already attracted to his handsome appearance.He squeezed her jaw and hissed, “You will regret it.”“What if you started liking me?” she dared to ask.He leaned closer, his breath warm against her ear. “No chance,” he scoffed. “You're not my type.”Bella’s heart sank.

Young Master Lu says, “My wife knows nothing at all and has a bad temper. You’d better not bully her.” Gu Mang watches silently as this man warns everyone who comes his way.

He died doing what he loved—on the basketball court, surrounded by cheers, chasing a dream that never came true.But fate—or perhaps the Basketball God—gave him one more shot.When Dirgantara Renji, a washed-out benchwarmer with a decade of struggle behind him, suddenly wakes up as his 15-year-old self, he’s confused, overwhelmed... and determined. This isn’t just a second chance at life—it’s a second chance at the dream he refused to let die.Now in 2009, armed with a mysterious System, years of experience, and a deep hunger to prove himself, Dirga is ready to carve a new path. But this time, things are different. New faces. New choices. And hidden talents he never met in his past life.Will he finally rise from the shadows to become the basketball legend he was meant to be?

It was a hasty, arranged marriage.And on their wedding night, he ran away.He lived for ten years under a false name, becoming one of the 7 Great Masters of the Continent, but returned home when he heard news of his father’s passing.There, he found his wife, whom he thought had already left, whom he had only seen once before.She was still as beautiful as the first time he saw her.