“I will!” I choke out. “I can’t stop this car!”
“I know,” he says gently. “So stop trying to fight it.”
“What does that even mean?”
“Take your hands off the steering wheel.”
Everything in me goes still. “No.”
“Trust me.”
“I can’t!” I trust him, probably with my life considering I called him first and not only because he's the only person I have managed to stay with in my life but because I have never felt this safe before.
“I don’t want to lose you too,” I whisper.
The words come out broken.
Bare.
I don't want to hurt him. Driving into him, what if he gets injured, there's no what if, he will get injured. “I’m not leaving you,” he murmurs. “Not like this.”
The distance between us is shrinking too fast. Too fast. “I don’t want to do this,” I say, shaking my head even though he can’t see me.
“I know.”
“Aryan, please move—”
“I love you.”
The words land before I can brace for them. “Listen to me,” he says gently, like he’s holding her together through his voicealone. “You don’t have to be strong right now. You don’t have to hold everything by yourself. I’ve got you. Even if you can’t see me, even if everything feels out of control—I’m right here. And I love you, Ishika. Not someday, not maybe. Right now. Enough to stand in your path if that’s what it takes to keep you safe.” My world blurs, my face wet from the tears that aren't stopping and his words aren't helping.
“I tried not to. I kept telling myself this would end, that you would leave, that I’d be fine if I didn’t let it matter…" I sob, unable to control it, "but you stayed. You kept showing up. And now you matter more than I know how to handle."
“I love you,” he repeats, stronger this time. “So listen to me.”
My hands tremble violently now. My heart feels like it’s breaking out of my chest.
“Ishika.” Just my name. But it steadies something inside me. Just enough.
“Let go.”
The car is too close now. There’s no more time. No more space to think. Just him. Just his voice. Just—Faith.
My fingers loosen. Slowly. Terrified. My hands lift from the steering wheel. I close my eyes. And in the last second before everything collides—I believe him.
CHAPTER 52
ARYAN
I don’t remember getting out of the car.
One second my hands are still locked around the steering wheel, the impact still echoing through my bones, the smell of burnt rubber and something metallic clogging my lungs—
—and the next, my door is open and I’m stumbling out onto the road like my body has forgotten how to function.
My head spins.
There’s a ringing in my ears that won’t stop. For a second, the world tilts.
