“It was reported Mia had bruises?”
My eyes jerked to Scott for the second time as my jaw clenched, a headache building.
“Ollie,” Mia suddenly spoke at my side.
Jumping to my feet, I scanned over her and quickly said, “I’m right here.” Mia’s eyes flitted open, and I used my hand as a shield over her eyes to adjust to the light. “Hi, love.”
“Hi,” she whispered.
Again, that single word engulfed me then broke me into a million pieces like it did every other time. I dropped my head into her neck, and her fingers combed through my hair.
I pulled away, and my blurry vision found her beautiful face. Mia’s tiny hand brushed over my wet cheek, and she smiled. But then the smile faded, and she pinched her eyes together as pain carved into her features.
“Mia, if you’re up for it, we’d like to ask you some questions,” the officer stated.
I dropped my chin into my chest. “No. No more bloody questions.”
Her hand squeezed mine and a misery-filled moan shot up her throat. “Ollie, it hurts.”
My chin hit my shoulder as I looked back at the officers. “You two need to leave.”
The controller for the bed fumbled in my hands before I pressed the button numerous times, ringing the nurse as their heavy boots descended from the room. Scott and Lynch walked outside the door to join them. Their small talk not so small, but the only thing I could focus on was freeing Mia from the pain. “I’m so sorry,” I repeated over and over, wishing I could trade places with her. Wishing I had a way to make the pain disappear. I’d never felt so helpless and useless in my bloody life.
The same nurse returned and shot something into her IV.
“Don’t go,” Mia said to me, her brown eyes sliding between mine.
Shaking my head, I grabbed her hand and sucked in a breath. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.”
Seconds later, she was out.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“There’s a thin line between a winand loss,
the line being how you respond to it.”
—Oliver Masters
mia.
I THREW MY HEAD back into the pillow. “I didn’t like that one.”
Ollie looked up from the last chapter with a smirk. “And why not?”
I’d been at the hospital for four days now, and Lynch brought Ollie during each visit. Today was my last day here, and I’d talked to the cops this morning, told them what I knew. Also, confirmed Ollie had nothing to do with it.
The stab wound to my right thigh scraped an artery. After an operation, a blood transfusion, and the four days of being looked after, I was given the okay to head back to Dolor. The doctor had said I should have a full recovery, just needed to be on the lookout for infection.
“You know why,” I said through an exhale. It wasn’t the fact I didn’t like unhappily ever after’s in books, but it was because of this particular story. “It’s stupid. If they are soulmates, why can’t they be together?”
Ollie chuckled, dug his elbow into the mattress at my side, and dropped his head into the palm of his hand. “Do you believe in soulmates, Mia?” His brow quirked up, and his smile deepened. “Because from your reaction, it sounds like this book got to you, yeah?”
“In the story,” I made clear, “If they were soulmates, then they should be together. Isn’t it … like … a law or something?”
“There are no laws in love. In this particular story, they were not meant to be together in this lifetime. Their sole purpose in this story was self-discovery. To accomplish a journey apart from each other and grow as individuals. When the time is right, possibly even lifetimes away, they will reunite and become one again for eternity. But first, they have to find themselves.”
“They were lost.”
