Page 139 of Keep This Promise
He rolls his eyes. “We were never like that, love.”
No, we weren’t, but when I came home from Vegas pregnant, Theo didn’t hesitate. He offered to marry me and raise Eden as if she were his own. Ours is a marriage in name only and never once have we crossed that line. Mostly because I am not the woman he loves, the one he can never have because she married someone else.
And . . . he is like a brother to me, nothing more.
“You couldn’t handle me in bed.”
Theo chuckles. “I think you have that backward.”
I lie beside him, my arm draped over his chest, careful of all the wires. My chin trembles, and the tears fall freely. “I love you.”
“I love you too. It’s because of that love that I can die in peace, so you have to let me go, and you have to leave before I take my last breath.”
I shake my head in rebellion. I don’t want to leave him. I don’t want him to die in this room with no one. Eden and I love him and should be with him in his last moments. He’s been a wonderful father to her and means the world to me. “You’re asking me to do the impossible.”
“Look at me, Fee.” I lift my watery gaze to his. “Nothing is impossible when it comes from love. You . . . have to go. Not because you want to, but because I need to protect you and Eden the only way I can. Follow every direction.”
“What direction?”
“The ones you’ll find along the way.”
“You’re being so bloody cryptic.”
Theo inhales deeply, the gasp causing his chest to lift as he uses his strength. It’s growing closer to the end. “Go.”
A sob rises in my throat, but I keep it down. “What are you so afraid of? Who are you protecting me from?”
His eyes close, and he struggles to breathe. “We’re running out of time. Please.”
The way his voice cracks at the end sends my resolve crumbling. I want to fight him, to deny this and stay beside him where I promised I would be, but how can I? Theo is asking me to go. He’s begging me to listen to him, and it’s clear something is wrong.
“You’re that afraid?”
“Yes. Ofhim.”
“If I go, you have to promise me that you’ll forgive me. That you know I didn’t want to go. That I would fight anything for you. You gave up your life for me when I was pregnant with Eden, and I owe you everything.”
“You owe me nothing. You gave me a child to love when I never could have one any other way.”
Theo’s heart condition is genetic, and he’s known from a young age that he would never risk having a child and passing on the illness. Eden was a blessing he never expected, and he was the savior I never knew I needed.
“I don’t want to say goodbye.”
He brushes my cheek. “It’s never goodbye with us. Best . . . friends.” Theo gasps and then smiles at me. “Never end.”
I rest my forehead to his, my heart rioting against what he’s asked me to do. “I keep waiting for the doctor to come in and tell us there’s a heart.”
“There’s no heart for us, Fee.”
I know this. Still, I wish it.
“You could have mine.”
“If only we could share.”
Another round of tears falls down my face, splashing against his chest. “Where am I going?” I ask.
“Where it’s safe. To someone who will protect you where I failed to.”
