Page 72 of Endless Love

“Tonight, what I went through, I was so afraid.”

“I’m ill, Damien. You can’t fight it.”

“Bria, please.” He presses me to him and buries his face in my neck and drags me down with him on the lounge. I straddle his lap and fist his shirt.

“Accept it.”

“Never.”

“I won’t be a mother.” I sniffle in his chest and he kisses the top of my head.

“I’m sorry.”

“But you can be a father.”

“Baby, stop this nonsense.”

“Alone, Damien. Five tiny letters that stabbed me.”

“Why didn’t you come to me tonight?” He lifts my chin and I lock my hands around his neck, playing with the ends of his hair, and his expression softens.

“To protect you.”

“When will you finally accept that I don’t need protection? You kept me out. It didn’t feel like protection, but more like you ripped my heart by not letting me take care of you.” He grips my arms and I deadpan.

“I’m not weak.”

“You never were and never will be weak.”

“It’s not fair.”

“I know. But I don’t give a fuck. Do you hear me? One day you will leave me, and I won’t live long afterward, but as long as you breathe, as long as you love me, I will fight for you and never let you go.”

I tilt my head to the side, closing my eyes, and he asks, “What happened in there?”

“She threatened that one day she’d kill me.”

“I’d never allow it.”

“I think she’s crazy.”

“We have dealt with crazier things and survived.”

“I shouldn’t have come back, but I couldn’t fight myself any longer. I knew I was dying, I accepted it, but what I couldn’t accept was not seeing you again.”

There it is, I said it. I came back for him, for no one else, for nothing else. My time was up, and I wanted my last years to be near him. Selfish heart, weak woman.

“I love you so damn much.” His voice breaks.

I stand up and crane my neck to the sky above and fixate on a bright star far, far away. I’m pulled out of my trance when two strong arms cage me in.

“Let me love you, Bria, and stop protecting me. You’re everything. Together, remember?” He caresses me, as if to assure himself I am still here, and I lean my face into his palm.

I nod, and through kisses, he says, “I survived your loss once. I won’t survive it a second time.”

And with it, the pain subsides, the insecurities vanish. He takes my hand, and we collapse on the bed, letting a relieved breath out.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

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