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“He murdered your parents,” I murmur. “I should be apologizing for him. For what he did to you.”
Fabien lets out a long sigh.
“It’s so fucked up. As I was losing blood... as my world was darkening... I thought of you, Angel. And there was no hatred left.”
“You were dying, Fabien.”
“In that moment, I thought of you, and of the way you make me feel, and who I become around you, and I realized then how I have spent too much of my life hating you when really, I should have been loving you.”
And, with his words, the coldness that’s been built up over the last few days melts away. My heart is melting. For him.
I’m about to answer when there’s a knock on the door. I turn, expecting the nurse.
But instead, standing there in the doorway, is Clement.
52
FABIEN
“You’re not going to kill me, are you?”
My best friend... former best friend... is at the door, crossing his arms and staring at me while I’m stuck in this stupid bed, tied up to tubes running into a myriad of machines, feeling mightily exposed and weak as hell.
Honestly, my question is only half-joking.
I killed Cromwell Auclair, and now his son is staring at me from across the room. And I don’t know what the fuck he’s thinking. Beside me, Jolie is frozen to the spot. Is she going to have to wake up her man from near-death just to see him murdered by her brother?
The heart monitor beeps along in the background like a ticking bomb. My arms are so heavy. I feel every stitch the doctors have sewn into me. Clement’s gaze drifts over the machines before settling on me. His expression is blank.
It feels like an eternity before he finally speaks.
“Maybe not.”
I raise an eyebrow.
“No?”
“Seems like you’re close to death anyway,” Clement replies. “To tell you the truth, it would feel like cheating to take you out now.”
“Hey, don’t put me down like that. I’m merely having a quick rest stop. I’ll meet you in the parking lot in ten minutes.”
There’s another eternity.
And then Clement’s lips seem to curve. His shoulders drop. He starts to laugh.
And so do I.
He takes a step forward and sits down at the edge of my bed.
“It’s good to see you awake, Fabien. I was worried about you.”
Jolie turns to me and holds my hand.
“He was,” she whispers. “So worried.”
I smile at my best friend.
“It’s good to see you too, Clement.”
