I fidgeted in the chair as if searching for a position that left me less exposed, knowing she saw too much.
“Why don’t we go outside and talk?”
“We can talk here. He’s sleeping,” I argued. Grace had been watching me too closely these past few days in the hospital. I sensed this as the moment she stopped waiting and pushed for a deeper conversation I wasn’t ready to have.
“Just in case. I don’t want to disturb him.”
“Yeah,” I agreed reluctantly.
Before walking out, she moved to Felix’s bedside and brushed his hair back, leaning in to press a long kiss to his cheek.
Witnessing her love for him, knowing the profound loss looming ahead, lodged a lump in my throat, and I slipped out before my composure could crack.
I sank into the chair and raked a hand down my face. Exhaustion sat heavy beneath my eyes. I’d barely slept since Grace’s call a few days ago, telling me Felix had taken a turn and was being admitted to the hospital—since she’d interrupted my attempt to chase after Aspen.
Watching Aspen walk out the door while Grace spoke in my ear had split me clean in two. One half of me was already making plans to get to my family as fast as possible. The other needed to follow the woman who’d crumpled me into aching knots with a single sentence.
In the end, going after Aspen would have been both fruitless and cruel. I’d seen her icy façade and poked at it anyway, prodding and piercing like a boy tugging the pigtails of his first crush—desperate for any scrap of attention. I’d gone at her like a hammer, relentless, until I shattered her defenses, unprepared for what lay beneath.
For the raw, damaged pieces she’d been trying so hard to hide.
“It won’t make it so hard to breathe that it hurts.”
My face screwed tight all over again, replaying the defeat in her words. I hated the way my body shuddered under the weight of her pain. Hated that I’d caused it. Hated that something inside me—calling from the corners of my mind—begged me to fix it. And I hated that something else kept me frozen in place.
Sitting at my godfather’s bedside gave me nothing but time to think. Yet every time I turned inward, searching for a clear path forward, I was bombarded by more than I could handle.
Memories of us bled together. Making the rules of our agreement tangled with her tearful confession that she loved me. Our laughter as she danced around the kitchen blurred intoDaria taking everything from me. The flash of Aspen’s golden eyes as I moved inside her, the soft give of her mouth against mine, twisted with the weight of her hard voice telling me we were done.
I searched for a thread to lead me in the right direction. I listened for the alarms that warned me so clearly before. But it was only chaos, and I feared I’d never find my way out.
So, instead, I sat by Felix’s side. As hard as it was to watch him, knowing he was in his final days, it was easier than facing everything tearing through me.
Grace stepped out, pulling me from my thoughts, dabbing under her eyes as she sat in the chair next to me. We each took a sip of our coffee before she exhaled, the sound low and deliberate, breaking the brewing tension without easing it.
“You know, Felix asked about Aspen earlier today?”
Though I expected it, her name struck my chest like a battering ram, sending me reeling no matter how tightly I braced. “Oh, yeah?” I asked, avoiding any details until I had a better feel for Grace’s thoughts.
“Yeah. And she’s been avoiding my calls, being vague in her responses about the wedding.”
“Hmmm…”
“You want to tell me what’s going on between you two?”
Nowaited on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t bother. Against Grace and her questions, it wouldn’t stand a chance. She could give the Spanish Inquisition a run for its money.
I sipped my coffee, buying precious seconds to come up with an answer. However, my mind lagged under the stress of Felix’s decline on top of all my plans crumbling over the last few weeks. I was wrung out, and my shoulders sagged.
“We had an argument, and the marriage might be off,” I muttered, ripping the bandage off in the most childish way—likesaying it fast and under my breath would make it less shocking and convince Grace to let it go.
Yeah, fucking right.
“Well, then fix it,” she stated, the words sharp and overly simplified.
My brows pulled together as I glanced at her from the corner of my eyes, unsure if she was serious.
“Listen, Lucian.” She shifted in her seat to face me better and rested her hand on mine. “First, Aspen has made you a better man. I’ve seen you happier in the past few months than I have in years. You need to do what it takes to hold onto that—onto her.”
