“I’ll die if you leave me.” The words are quiet. Matter-of-fact. “I won’t let you leave me.”
My heart is pounding so hard I can feel it in my throat.
“Cristiano, you can’t say things like that.”
“I mean it.” He seizes my hands, gripping them so tight it hurts. “I won’t let you leave me. I can’t. You have to understand, you’re everything to me. Without you, I’m nothing. I’m no one.”
I try to pull my hands back, but his grip is iron.
“You’re hurting me,” I whisper.
He doesn’t let go.
“Promise me.” His voice is shaking now. “Promise me you won’t leave. Promise me you’ll stay.”
“Cristiano, please—”
“Promise me!”
I yank my hands free and stumble away. My whole body is trembling.
“I should go,” I say. “I need to go.”
I turn toward the door, but he’s faster.
He’s between me and the exit before I can take two steps, his body blocking my path. He’s so tall, so broad, filling the doorway like a wall. In the past I’ve admired how muscular he is, but now his body looks like a threat.
“Cristiano.” My voice is high and thin. “Move.”
“You can’t leave.” His eyes are wild, desperate. “Not yet. Not like this.”
“Move.Please.”
“I can’t let you go when you’re talking about ending things.”
I take a step back. Then another.
He matches me, step for step.
“Cristiano, you’re scaring me.”
I search his face for pain or regret, but there’s only that terrible intensity.
“I would never hurt you,” he says. “I just need you to listen to me. I need you to understand.”
“I understand. I do. But I need to go.”
“No.” He shakes his head. “No. If you leave now, you’ll never come back. I know you. You’ll convince yourself that this is for the best, and you’ll stay away, and I’ll lose—”
He breaks off, his chest heaving.
Then his head snaps toward the door, and he freezes.
“You hear that?” he whispers. “Dad. He’s coming.”
I strain my ears, but I don’t hear footsteps. Just the thud of my own terrified heart. “I don’t hear anything.”
“He’s coming.” Cristiano’s eyes are wide, urgent. “Mina, you have to hide.”
