“No. That can’t be right,” I whispered through my fried vocal cords. “That’s not true.”
“I’m so sorry, Sophia. He’s gone.”
Gone.
No…
That…
Amidst the rising chaos in my head, I tried to pull the memory of those last few moments from the haze.
Lucas had a pulse. I was pulling him to the door, but when I collapsed, he had a pulse.
… Right?
My mind tripped over the images of his bloodless lips, his lack of response to my slap.
Had his chest been moving?
A gasp caught in my sore throat as the truth crashed over me.
I never found a pulse. He never woke up. Had his heart stopped beating, and I didn’t even notice?
No air.
There was no air anywhere.
The monitor behind me went berserk, and suddenly the room was full of people, all speaking.
To me. To each other.
Nothing made sense.
A curtain fell, and everything faded to black.
When I woke again,I was already crying. I didn’t want to be awake. I didn’t want to exist in a body that hurt this much. I didn’t want to be in possession of a heart in this many pieces.
Every beat of that broken heart hurt. Betrayal and sorrow floated down, coating me in a cold blanket.
Grief is like snow…
Hepromised.
He promised he’d stay.
Until I die.
But I never really believed he’d die. The thought of his last breath was so unimaginable that I hadn’t believed it possible.
I tried to reason it out.
Maybe he’d woken after Theo pulled me out.
But Theo would know.
Maybe he’d been transferred here, registered as a John Doe.
They would have identified him by now.
