Page 132 of When Hearts Surrender

“I’ve texted the group. They’re on their way,” Charles comments.

Their words are meaningless to me.

My world is a wash of hopeless grayscale and I feel myself sinking back into the abyss Belle pulled me out of when she got into my car that fateful night.

Meaningless. My life is meaningless without her.

This has got to be the worst hangover I’d ever experienced.

A headache pounds in my skull, my stomach lurching like I’m seasick. Everything is so blurry and bright.

What is that annoying beeping sound?

I blink several times, the smell of antiseptic agents reaching my nostrils, and I groan.

“I don’t feel so good,” I mumble as I try to move, but my body feels too heavy, like I ran two back-to-back marathons.

“Belle!” Maxwell’s panicked voice reaches my ears, his warm hand engulfing mine as I see the dark, blurry shape of him hovering over me.

Amber. Sandalwood.I heave in an inhale.I’m safe.

“How are you feeling? Fuck, you scared me.”

Blinking my eyes some more, my vision finally clears and I gasp, seeing the haunted look on his face—sunken eyes with dark circles, his jaw scruffy because he obviously didn’t shave, his hair mussed, shirt wrinkled.

“Maxwell, what happened? Why am I in the hospital?”

He clenches his jaw. “You were found unconscious outside the ER. They rushed you in and you were unresponsive. Fuck, Belle. I was so terrified.”

The events from earlier start floating in. Meeting with Fiona. Cole on the streets.

Cole.

“I saw him right before I fainted. He said he had something to tell me…” My voice trails off as more snippets of the strange conversation I had with Cole stream into my consciousness.

“Who?” Maxwell growls, his lips twitching.

“C-Cole. He said there’s something I don’t know about him.” I grip his hand tightly. “There’s something wrong with him. He wasn’t like this before.”

“That motherfucker. I’m going to find him and end him.”

“Don’t do anything stupid.” Another wave of nausea hits me and I dry heave, but nothing comes out. “What happened to me? Why am I feeling so sick?”

Maxwell wraps his arm around me, lending me his body heat. “They ran a bunch of tests on you yesterday. You know how you’ve been feeling random dizziness and nausea?”

I nod.

He takes a deep breath, his free hand knotted on top of my blankets. “You were poisoned, Belle. Chronic cyanide poisoning. The doctors have given you an antidote and they’ll be monitoring you for a few days. They suspect it has been happening for a while, but not at high doses.” He swallows, and whispers, “That’s why you’re still alive.”

What? Poisoned? Why and how?Hairs rise on the back of my neck as fear grips my lungs in a vise.Why would anyone want to kill me?

The curse.

I shake myself. That isn’t real. It can’t be.

“This makes no sense. The poisoning. Cole. Nothing makes any sense.”

Maxwell grits his teeth, his eyes flashing. “I’m going to find the motherfucker and kill him.”

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