“I’ll see if he’ll lock me in there with you,” Ares jokes.
“They’re fighting with each other. My mum and dad, blaming themselves.” I sigh. “I didn’t want that. They’re good parents.”
“I know.” Ares kisses the top of my head. “But they should have been able to see how much you were struggling, Zara. I could see it.”
“You stare at me a lot, though.”
“I appreciate beauty when I recognise it.” He smirks.
“I’m sorry you had to find me like that.”
“I’m glad I found you when I did. I’m sorry I wasn’t there earlier,” he says.
“It hurts. I hate this feeling. The sadness. I want it to go away. I just wanted it to all go away.”
“I know,” he tells me. “I have something for you.”
“You do?”
Ares pulls a small pink box from his pocket and hands it to me. “Happy birthday, P.”
“What is it?”
“Open it and you’ll find out.” He chuckles.
I remove the lid of the little box and a beautiful rose-gold butterfly pendant on a matching chain stares back at me. There’s a pink stone on the left wing of the butterfly. “It’s so beautiful.”
Ares picks up the chain, opens it, and puts it around my neck before securing the clasp. “Promise me you’ll always wear this. Never take it off,” he says.
“I promise.” I smile up at him. “Thank you. I really don’t deserve this.”
“You deserve the entire fucking world, P. You’re the most generous, kind, loyal person I know. There isn’t anything I could give you that you don’t deserve,” Ares says. “Now tell me one thing you’re grateful for.”
I blink. He remembered the question from my journal. “I’m grateful that I’m loved by you.”
“I’m grateful you’re alive,” he counters. “I’m grateful that we still have a chance at our future together.”
“What if I can’t?”
“Can’t what?”
“Can’t get better?” I explain.
“Then I will spend the rest of my life trying to help you find a way to either get better or we’ll have to learn to live with your depression. There isn’t an alternative, Zara.”
I know he says he loves me. I believe he does. But forever is a long time to live with the burden of someone else’s broken mind.
Chapter Thirty-Two
My dad made an appointment with a cardiologist for me. He was worried I was going to have the same broken heart syndrome my mum has. I don’t. Myheart is fine. A little fractured after finding Zara the way I did, but it’s beating.
I can still see her lifeless body in my arms as I carried her into the hospital. I haven’t left her room since I was finally allowed in. It doesn’t matter that her father is giving me the death glare every time he looks my way. I can handle it. I don’t care what he thinks of me.
Also, I think God himself could want to date one of Dominic’s daughters and even thatwouldn’t be good enough.
“Okay, we have two options, sweetheart. There’s an in-patient treatment centre. It’s state-of-the art, really nice. You could stay there for a month to start with and then go from there. Or we can have a round-the-clock therapist come to the house.” Zara’s mum looks from her to me. I can see what she wants. She wants me to back up their decision to lock Zara away and get her help.
The thought doesn’t sit well with me. I’d rather just keep helping her the way I have been. Although that didn’t fucking work out too well. I know she needs to get help. I want her to get help. I just don’t want to have to be separated from her while she gets that help.
