Prologue
Paige
My eyelids wereweak and heavy. All I did any more was sleep, but I was still too tired to wake up. I didn’t even remember how I’d gotten here.
It took an unbelievable amount of strength to lift my head and glance over at the tray of food. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but was pretty sure it was late. Why they thought I wanted crackers now was beyond me.They can’t really expect me to eat, can they?Swallowing anything was torturous thanks to the deep open sores that trailed down my throat. Water burned, so the thought of eating anything was as appealing as chowing down on sandpaper—and would probably feel the same going down.
I curled into the fetal position as I shivered and rubbed at my skin to get warm, and felt the pointy bones through the flesh of my arms. I reached for the covers and winced at the pain in my fingers as I gathered up the scratchy fabric and pulled it over my aching shoulders.
It hurt to move. It hurt to breathe. Most of all, it hurt to think.
The life I had wanted, with the man I still wanted, haunted my dreams.
You own me. Can’t you see that?
You’re mine. You’re everything.
I . . . can’t see my future with anyone else but you.
I’d finally found what I’d been looking for my entire life, but I couldn’t keep it.
The sound of voices yelling outside my hospital room snatched me out of my thoughts. I pushed myself up, panting at the exertion it took to sit upright. Leaning back on my elbows I strained to listen. My heart leaped in my heavy chest when I recognized the voice causing the commotion outside—the voice I’d know anywhere.
“I need to see her,please.”
Evan?No, no, no. I didn’t want him to see me like this. How did he find out I was here?
“I’m sorry, sir. Immediate family only. This is the ICU.”
“I’m not leaving. Paige? Daisy, it’s me!” My heavy head dropped to my hands. The sobs that ran through me made it difficult to breathe, thanks to the oxygen tubes filtering through my nose.
Pushing him away was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do, but I did it for him.I didn’t want to let him go. I wanted him to hold me, tell me he loved me and know he would never leave me. I wanted that so fucking much it ached.
“Sir, please. She’s a very sick girl.”
In time, he’d see. He deserved someone who could give him a life, children, and a future. All things I couldn’t offer him, no matter how much I wished things were different. He deserved better than this, better than me.
The door was half closed but opened with such force that it banged into the wall and made me jump. Evan marched up to my bed and took my face in his hands. His hay-colored eyes filled with tears as his hands shook.
“I love you, and I’m not going anywhere.” His voice quivered with emotion, but I wasn’t sure if it was sadness, rage, or a combination of the two.
“Now, you’re going to tell me exactly what’s going on. And why you lied to me.”
One
Paige
One year earlier
“Jack? Ellie? You guys up?”I banged on my cousin’s front door with my elbow, holding a tray with three coffees in one hand and a bag with a dozen bagels in the other. Still sweaty from the gym, with no free hand to wipe the moisture from my brow, I hoped one of them had heard me and was headed for the door. I breathed a sigh of relief when the lock clicked.
“Cuz, you are the best!” Jack took the bag and tray from me and I followed him inside.
“Yeah, that’s what you keep telling me. Where’s Ellie? Still sleeping?”
“Yep. I’ve learned a few things about pregnant women these past few months. They cry all the time, they sleep a lot, and they’re horny as all hell. Number three helps me tolerate numbers one and two.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me and I smacked him on the arm.
“Not the visual I want at nine o’clock in the morning, pig.” I shoved his arm as he set everything on the table but the coffees were saved by their plastic lids. This was the closest my cousin had been to his old self in months. Hearing disgusting comments from him actually warmed my heart.
