Page 122 of Undone

Too much left unsaid. Too many dreams to live. Gracie deserved her father. Noah deserved the future I so desperately wanted to give her.

The darkness crept closer, but I forced myself to focus. I couldn’t let it end like this. Not when there was still a chance to fix it.

Panic still surged, but then I noticed the phone a few feet away that must have been dropped in the scuffle. My body screamed at me to give up, but I couldn’t. Not now. I had to fight.

I dragged myself across the cement, my fingers scraping against the dust and grime, the pain in my leg so intense I nearly blacked out.

When my hand finally closed around the phone, I fumbled with it, my hands slick with blood and sweat.

I dialed her number. My vision was fading, and my pulse was erratic, butI couldn’t give up.

Noah’s voice crackled through, desperate and frantic. “Hello?”

“Peach,” I rasped.

“Dorian? Oh my God, where are you? What happened?”

“I’ve been shot. I…. can’t move.”

“Where are you?” she asked, her panic rising. “What do you see?”

I turned my head, my attention narrowing to only her voice—her words. I tried to focus, to make sense of what I saw, but everything was slipping through my fingers. I managed a halfhearted chuckle, a dry rasp that barely made it past my lips. “Sawyer… picture of Sawyer. Running.”

There was a pause. A long, agonizing moment before Sawyer spoke in the background. “I know where that is. We’re coming.”

And just like that, hope glimmered, fragile butalive.

But the pain was relentless. I didn’t know how much longer I had. I could feel the darkness creeping in at the edges of my vision, pulling me closer.

“I’m… I’m bleeding out, baby,” I slurred. Each inhale was ripping through me, and I couldn’t fight the darkness closing in.

“Dorian, stay with me.” Her voice cracked, trembling, as the sound of her frantic breaths filled the line. “Keep your eyes open. I’m coming. Do you hear me? We’re coming.” Her words were thick with panic and desperation, and it was the only thing keeping me from falling unconscious.

I wanted to tell her everything. To make it right. To promise that I’d be there, that I wasn’t going anywhere. But my body was already betraying me. I couldn’t even keep my eyes open anymore.

“Noah…” I could barely get her name out.

“Dorian,no.” Her words were raw, desperate. “Stay with me. I need you. Gracie needs you.” The pain in her voice tore through me like a thousand cuts, but I couldn’t make myself breathe deeper.

I was fighting to stay awake. Every inch of my body screamed for sleep, for relief, but I couldn’t give in. Not now. Not when her voice was still in my ear, begging, pleading for me to stay.

My chest felt like it was being crushed, my breaths shallow and ragged. But I had to make sure she knew.

“Tell G… I love her.” The words scraped through my throat, barely above a whisper, but they were everything. They had to be everything.

“I’m not telling her anything. You’re going to tell her when you see her.” Her voice was stronger now, but I could hear the tears—the deep, guttural sobs. “You hear me, Dor? You are going to tell her. You are going to tell her tomorrow and the next day and every fucking day until you enter the next life, but that day isnottoday. Hold on for me.”

I wanted to fight to hold on. I wanted to be the man who kept her from feeling that fear, that devastation. But I was losing this fight.

“Take… care of her for me…” The words were barely escaping.

My body felt numb, like I was already slipping into another place.

“No. We are going to take care of her. You and me. You hear me?Weare going to take care of her together! Keep your eyes open. Staywithme!”

She screamed now, loud and frantic. Every word a plea for me to fight. I felt her desperation in the pit of my stomach, but I couldn’t hold on. I was already falling, already surrendering to the void, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop it.

I still didn’t have the strength to respond. I let her voice wrap around me, curling through my mind like a tether, something soft and fragile, trying to keep me from drowning.

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