“Oh firecracker…”
He smiles—smiles—a crooked, broken mess of teeth and blood. “You look so much like your mother.” He coughs hard, and blood splatters on the pillow.
My heart rips wide open in my chest.
“What’s wrong with him?” I spin toward Arsen. “Help him. Please. Please?—”
He hesitates.
“Don’t fucking look at me like that! Do something—he’s right there!”
“He’s dying, Arlo. I’m sorry. We tried.”
“No.” I shake my head. My hands tremble as I turn back to my father.
“There has to be something. He’s strong…he’s…he made it through worse. I know he did.”
Wolff’s voice cuts in. “He’s in total organ failure. We’ve got him on morphine to numb the pain. That’s all we can do.”
“No…” My voice shatters.
“Priest.” I look to him, begging. “Please. Please do something.” He stares at me, unmoving. His eyes are fractured ice. He doesn’t speak. He doesn’t have to.
No! He’s not dying.
“I did everything you taught me, Dad,” I whisper, turning back to him. “Everything.”
His smile is soft, but proud.
“I know,” he rasps. “I always knew you’d be better than me.”
I lower my head to his chest, my hands shake so bad I can’t even hold him still.
“Don’t leave me,” I breathe. “Please don’t leave me again.”
His breath rattles. His body shakes. But he lifts his hand—what’s left of it—and brushes it toward my cheek. Tears pour freely now, my entire body trembling against him.
Behind me, the room empties.
And I sit with my father—my everything—as he slips further away from me with every broken breath.
“Stay with me…”
I whisper it again. And again. Until my throat is raw and I have nothing left but his blood on my hands and the memory of how much I loved him.
Arsen sedatedArlo when Lev started hallucinating from whatever shit they did to his brain. I carried her to her room, her face puffy and tear stained.
She was still crying in her sleep.
Pleading.
Begging.
The sound of a little girl breaking inside a woman’s body.
I’ve ripped screams from thousands of throats. Tears mean nothing to me. But hers—hers gut me. I’ve never cared about pain that wasn’t mine.
Until hers.
