Page 179 of The Elusive Billionaire
“I sleep enough. Put on the movie, Madi, but I’m not giving up my seat, so you’ll have to see if you can con a nurse into giving you another one.”
“I’ll go get one,” Braxton murmurs. I stop making eye contact with him because I don’t appreciate the way he’s looking at me—as though I’m damaged, broken, lost.
Madi signs in to a streaming service, but I ignore her and instead fix Savvy’s bedding the way it should be done. I hate the way Madi tucked her in. Savvy will be much more comfortable if I fix the corners so they’re not suffocating her.
“I need to be able to breathe, Patch. No more prison corners on the sheets,”she’d said to me once. After that, I learned how to make the bed to her specifications, but of course I never told her that.
I do now. “Remember when you told me no prison corners?” I wait in case she responds. She doesn’t. “Well, I watched youuntuck all the edges that morning, and then from that day on, I made the bed the way you liked it.”
Walking around the bed, I start on the other side.
“It took me an entire week to get used to your loosey goosey bed sheets, but honestly, it didn’t really matter because we always ended up tangled in each other anyway.”
When she’s tucked in the way she prefers, I cradle her face in both of my hands.
“I’ll learn all your ways, Monroe, if you just wake up for me, okay? Come on, sweetheart. That’s a deal even you can’t refuse.”
A wet, garbled noise has me lifting her eyelids. Is this it? Is she waking up?
“G—Grey,” Madi sobs.
My name from Madi’s lips steals my hope—the damn grim reaper coming for my soul.
Hope is a dangerous thing. When hope dies, so does joy. And when joy dies…
“What?” I ask.
“A—are you okay?”
“I will be, just as soon as Savvy wakes up.”
She makes more wet, raspy sounds. I know she’s crying, but crying feels like giving up. I’ll rage with her. I’ll beg with her. I’ll do a fucking rain dance with her. But I will not cry with her.
“Savvy’s ready for the movie,” I say.
Madi hiccups and presses play.
Braxton enters a few moments later with a chair that he places by Savvy’s bed. Madi sits opposite me and takes Savvy’s hand.
I fight the urge to rip it away from her. I have no good reason to do it, and it would only lead to problems. Rationally, I know Savvy belongs to them too, but with so little of her to spare right now, I’m finding it really painful to share.
Braxton sits on the floor along the wall and stares blankly at the television screen.
They’re sitting vigil, but me? I’m still praying for a miracle.
With Matthew McConaughey’s voice in the background, I rest my head on Savvy’s bed, as close to her heart as I can get, and close my eyes.
She just needs a little more time.
I waketo the sound of whispers. The S-sounds hissing and harsh Cs and Ks somehow softer.
They weave through my dreams and conscious mind like a bad trip.
“Is it legal though? Will Austin be able to fight it?”
My head snaps up at the mention of Austin. His mother definitely should have swallowed him.
“Fight what?” My voice is rough with sleep, and my head feels as though it’s floating.
