Page 166 of Diamond Kisses

“You’re worried about me because you want to be my friend?” I eyed him warily.

He laughed under his breath. “Well, you did let me perve at you when we first met. You didn’t condemn me for asking for something to get me through the day, so yes…I would like to be friends.”

I folded over the steering wheel, choking on a sob.

The flashback.

The offer of comfort.

I couldn’t.

I couldn’t let him die without sharing just how incredible he was.

He deserved to be mourned and not forgotten.

Before I could stop myself, I ripped out the keys, wrenched open the door, and ran up the garden path.

Thebing-bongof the doorbell echoed far too loudly.

The seconds that ticked past scratched up my spine until every tear I hadn’t allowed myself to fall clung to my eyelashes.

And when the door finally opened, and I stared into soft brown eyes, so similar to Paavak’s, and studied the face of the man who’d raised my soulmate, I couldn’t hold them back anymore.

I dropped to my knees on their doorstep.

I broke apart right there at his feet.

Every hardship and hurt, every pain and panic unravelled, and I couldn’t stop.

Paavak’s father cooed under his breath and shouted for his wife. With gentle hands, he helped tug me to my feet, then wrapped his arms around my quaking shoulders and guided me into their house.

I felt no fear as the door closed.

I shuddered in the arms of a stranger.

But he wasn’t a stranger.

Ifeltmy friend in his arms.

I heard Peter as a child in the walls and saw his ghost standing at the bottom of the stairs.

His mother dashed around me and patted the couch for her husband to place me down. They sat on either side of me, both arms wrapped tight around me, rocking with me as I broke and broke and broke.

“It’s okay. There, there. What on earth happened,beta?”

I broke harder.

Even his voice reminded me of Paavak.

I’d lost Henri and Peter.

I’d lost my innocence and happiness.

But in these strangers’ arms, I found the strength to smile through my tears and study them.

Paavak’s father wiped my tears away with his thumb. “Are you safe? Are you hurt? You can tell us. We’ll look after you.”

“Did someone attack you?” his mother asked softly, her voice so soft and sweet. “We can call the police for you? Your family? What happened?”

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