Page 270 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
My brother.
Stop this tragedy.
This converging of worlds that I still couldn’t grasp.
And I wondered, if somehow, someway, I would have been led here anyway.
For two days, I sat beside him. My only companion the steady, quiet beeping of the monitor and the rhythmic call of his breaths.
I refused to leave.
His family was here most of the time as well, standing guard and ready for anything that was needed.
Waiting for the same miracle I prayed for incessantly.
Though they would only come into the dimly lit room for a moment or two. Murmuring their love and support and belief before they’d leave us alone.
As if they were offering us the time that we might not have.
I pushed from the chair, needing to stretch my aching legs, and I wandered to the window that overlooked the small intensive care unit. The nurses’ station was right outside in the middle.
Their voices muted beyond the glass.
It felt as if I were watching them through water.
Their laughter as they chatted.
Sadness pulsed, and I blew out a weighted sigh.
Then I froze when I felt a wash of that fierce, unrelenting energy swallow me from behind.
I inhaled a shattered breath, frozen for a beat, before I slowly shifted around to look at him where he lay propped in the hospital bed.
This menace of a man with those moonlit eyes.
“Ah, there she is. My favorite Little Liar.”
Tears burned and broke free, streaking hot down my cheeks.
He stretched out a hand. “Don’t cry, baby.”
Of course, that only made me cry harder as I rushed to his side. Leaning over him, I gripped his hand in both of mine.
Feeling him whole and awake and alive.
Emotion rushed, a crush of every regret at odds with this exquisite relief.
“Theo. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” I mumbled through the tears. “I didn’t want to drag you into my mess.”
He reached out with his other hand that had an IV attached to it. Watching me, he gathered the moisture that drenched my cheek. “Told you I would hold it for you. All of it. I’d gladly give it all if it meant you being free. Besides, it seems I was already a part of it.”
My heart thrashed.
“Scarlett.” I whispered her name like a secret. The ghost who had always haunted his eyes. “She died because of me. Because she helped me.”
“Go. Try to save your life. Just like I’m going to try to save mine.”
And she hadn’t been able to.
