Page 138 of Atone

“Promise.”

Her eyes flutter, exhaustion seeping from her bones, and I brush the tear that rolls down her cheek.

“Everything hurts.” She closes her eyes. “I feel like I can barely keep my eyes open.”

“That’s okay. Sleep. You need your rest. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Her fingers tighten through mine, but she doesn’t open her eyes. “Please don’t leave me, Alex.”

“I never could,” I whisper, planting a kiss on her arm. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Mila drifts to sleep at my words, and I don’t leave her side. I offer her what she offered me once, whether she realized what it meant to me or not at the time. She kept me company at Montgomery, even when I didn’t ask for it. She gave me something to look forward to. Something to live for.

She pulled me back from the dead, so that’s what I’ll do for her.

EPILOGUE

MILA

Two Weeks Later

Alex pops the car door open and leans down to pick me up.

“You aren’t seriously going to carry me up to the dorm room.” I try to wiggle so he’ll set me down, but he refuses.

“You better fucking believe it.” He kicks the door shut.

I wrap my arms around his neck, burying my face against his chest. “You’re absolutely ridiculous. The doctors said I’ll be fine.”

“You’re still healing.”

You diedis what he doesn’t say. I don’t blame him when I avoid those words myself.

“For someone with extremely violent tendencies, you’re a surprisingly gentle caretaker.”

He buries his nose in my hair. “Only when it comes to you.”

Warmth blooms in my chest as I look up at him, tracing my fingers over the scars on the side of his neck.

Alex no longer tenses at my touch. He trusts mebecause he knows I don’t fear who he is. I see the truth behind every mark. The stories and secrets laced in his scars. From his Sigma Sin tallies to the heart I carved beneath his collarbone.

Alex is strength and endurance.

And not just for what he’s survived, but for how he moves forward. He could have let his trauma drown him. But he found a reason to fight. To move forward.

Alex didn’t just stand up for me when he confronted his father at Sigma House. He stood up for himself. Instead of drowning in vengeance like his father wanted, he chose hope. He chose me.

I have no doubt that if he sees his father again, he’ll make him suffer. But in that moment, he held onto what he has, not what he’s lost, and that’s all that matters.

Gideon Lancaster, on the other hand, is in the wind. He disappeared after the confrontation at Sigma House, likely running from whatever proof Alex hinted he has that he could use to take his father down. Ursa has refused to help or indicate where Gideon might have gone. And while Alex hasn’t said what that means for him or Sigma House, my guess is they’ll continue looking until they find him.

I don’t care if he’s never seen again so long as Alex is at my side.

Which he is,literally.

He refused to leave the hospital while I was there, living in the recliner until I was strong enough for him to lie beside me on the bed. The nurses tried to kick him out every day when visiting hours ended, and he refused.

I would have rolled my eyes at how he used his last name to throw a little weight around when they tried to challenge him, but I wanted him at my side. It was as ifAlex accepted the challenge his father set in that kitchen to the farthest extent.

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