“I’m alive. And I’m fine.” Kissing her slender shoulders, I command, “Close your eyes and sleep. I’ve missed this, angel. Don’t deny me.”
“Okay.”
“Good girl.”
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Nathan
A tap sounds on my door.
I look up from the hospital bed and freeze.
Iris fidgets nervously at the entrance, staring at me with wide eyes.
The blue summer dress brings out the color in her eyes. Short and cute dresses is all she loved to wear, no matter the season. Seems that hasn’t changed.
When Arya told me last night that Iris had shown up at the news of my admission into the hospital, a part of didn’t believe her. Seeing her in the flesh still feels like a figment of my imagination.
I never thought she’d want to see me again, much less be in the same room as me after how badly I hurt her.
Yet here she is.
Neither of us blinks nor utters a word as silence stretches between us. Oh, how we’ve gone from talking for hours to this awkwardness. The memories we made in the three years weknew each other and fake dated, all fight for dominance at once. I’m a bag of emotions.
“Hii,” she greets in a small, hesitant voice.
The sound of that sweet tone brings a pang to my chest. “Hey.”
“How are you feeling?” She edges closer.
I crack a smile. “I’ve been better.”
“Better,” she repeats, gaze cutting away from me and dropping to the floor. When they rise back up, they’re livid. “You don’t know the meaning of the word better!”
“What?”
Pain flashes on her face. “The world is abetterplace without me. The people I love arebetteroff without me.”
My heart stops beating when she hurls my words from the letter back at me. How did she get her hands on it?
“It doesn’t matter!” she scolds, reading the question on my face. “What matters is how bloody wrong you are. About everything. I wasn’t gone. I am right here! I was right here. All you needed to do was pick up the phone and call me. Hell, text me.”
“I hurt you, Iris.”
“So what? You’re my best friend!” Tears shimmer in her sky-blue eyes. Utterly sad and heartbroken. “Best friends fight and argue. Eventually, they make up. How could you think to leave me like that? Do you hate me that much?”
“Hate you?” I murmur, aghast. “I don’t hate you, Iris.”
“Then why haven’t you reached out?” Her feet close the distance between us. “If you were hurting inside that badly, why didn’t you talk to me? I almost died on the spot when Arya said you tried to take your own life.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know that now. Nevertheless, you were going to take that step in the past. It would’ve devastated us all. None of us would’ve been the same.”
“Really? Even after everything?”
She sits down on the bed beside me, taking my hand between hers. “You’re family, Nathan. Don’t you understand? The bond I share with you can’t be broken so easily. I love you and miss you terribly. You became my best friend first, before I even met Bianca and Rosalie.”
