Page 54 of Wicked Promises (Fallen Royals 3)

And finally, minutes or hours later, a doctor comes to see us.

“We just finished testing. The surgeon decided to rush him into emergency surgery,” she says. “He has a pulmonary embolism. A blood clot in the lung. This particular kind he has can be quite severe.”

“Was it because he got out of bed?” I ask from the corner of the room, covering my face with my hands. Still, the words slip out before I can stop them.

Lenora shakes her head. “No.”

“The PE could’ve been caused by a number of things. We also discovered that the site of the chest tube had become infected.” The doctor clears her throat. “Was him getting out of bed the cause? Probably not. There’s no way to know for sure, so you shouldn’t think it was because of you.”

I bite my lip. Part of me doesn’t want to accept that dismissal of blame.

I can’t let it go.

“How long is the surgery? Is he… did you catch it in time?” Lenora asks.

“Removing the blood clot is a minimally invasive surgery. The surgeon is going to remove it and also clean out the infection. We’ll update you once we know more, but we caught it. That’s the important part.”

Lenora lets out a long breath at the same time my entire body shudders.

The doctor leaves, and Lenora spins toward me, joy written across her face.

“Hear that? He’s going to be okay.” She falls into the seat next to me. “Thank God.”

“How do you do it?” I ask.

She tilts her head and raises her eyebrow.

“I mean… the emotions. Everything in the past week. How are you still standing?”

She lets out a little laugh. “I’m still standing?”

We’re quiet for a moment.

“No, I’m still… I’m functioning. You’ll be surprised at how much you can endure before you shut down.” She blinks at the ceiling. “But, I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to scream. Every single moment he was in the ICU. Even now.”

I exhale.

“Love can be a beautiful thing,” she tells me in a low voice. “But it can also be a terrible burden.”

My eyes burn. My thoughts jump to Caleb. Of course they do.

“Is it better to be alone?” I ask.

She considers my answer, and in this moment, that’s what I appreciate the most about her. She doesn’t bullshit me—I’m practically an adult. She’s never tried to make me feel younger than I am. Sure, she’s still a parent. But it’s different.

“There are epic love stories that end in tragedy,” she finally says. “And then there are people who just float at the baseline of emotion. No love, no loss. I think it’s better to experience it all. Everything good and bad and terrifyingly ugly in this world. Otherwise, we’ll just walk around numb, and what kind of life is that?”

Love, loss, tragedy.

“And besides, who’s to say every story ends in a ball of flames? Some surpass time.” She wraps her arm around my shoulders.

I surprise myself by leaning into it, resting my head on her shoulder.

“I’m scared.”

“Why do I think you’re not just talking about Robert?” She hums.

“I don’t want to fall in love with Caleb if he’s just going to break my heart,” I whisper. “I don’t want him to… string me along or mess with me.”

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