“Again, I’m right here, Julius.”
“That’s the problem.”
“You’re acting like I’m a stranger.”
“I’m acting like I don’t recognize what this is anymore or who you are. What you want isn’t enough.”
“It is if you let it be.”
“I don’t know how to,” I admitted. “I wouldn’t know how to make that work. We don’t share anything.”
“Yeah, except for her.”
“Kraven—”
“You don’t have to figure it out right now.”
I stepped away. I had to.
Before I turn to go back into her hospital room, Kraven declared, “You do have to figure out what’s more important to you.”
I spun to look at him again.
“The truth of the matter is, you have to decide whether you’d rather share with me or lose her completely. Bottom line, even if she chooses you, I won’t leave her, and if she chooses me, you’ll lose her. Where do you want to stand, Julius? Alone or with family?”
“I wouldn’t know how to share her with you, Kraven. What part of that do you not understand?”
He didn’t hesitate, spewing…
“You already have been. Now it’s just about making it a why choose.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
ISLA
The discharge paperworktook longer than I thought it would, or maybe it just felt that way in the wake of the unexpected. I placed the envelope in my back pocket, folding it small, trying to avoid it. Silently hoping they were too.
It almost felt as if I was holding a treasure.
The nurse stood at the end of the bed, flipping through the pages of what they wanted me to sign off on. I should’ve been paying attention to what she was saying, but I didn’t hear one word. I was too consumed by what the hell just happened.
It was one thing after another, and I honestly had whiplash, holding on as hard as I could on this roller-coaster ride we found ourselves in.
“Low stress,” she repeated. “That’s the most important thing for you to remember.”
My attention kept drifting back to the same place every time I tried to listen to her.
Them.
Us.
Julius stood near the window, arms crossed over his broad chest, his posture rigid, holding himself together by force alone. His eyes weren’t on the nurse, and they weren’t on Kraven or me either. There were somewhere else entirely.
He was somewhere else entirely, filling the space with his presence anyway. They hadn’t spoken, or at least I hadn’t heard him. I knew they talked, though. It was obvious in their demeanor. How they were standing on opposite ends of the room, with me once again in the middle.
How can I choose?
