Page 92 of All Your Tomorrows

“I’ve been asleep for a while, haven’t I?”

She nodded, though her eyes hid something I couldn’t quite read. “No one could see you while you were in the ICU.”

“I was in there for a while?”

She nodded, and it was then that I noticed her bloodshot eyes. “Mrs. Fletcher? What’s going on?”

“You and Kyler came to the hospital at the same time,” she explained.

“What? Is he okay?”

“His intracranial pressure spiked,” she explained, her voice low and pained.

“Is it better now?” I asked. “Did they fix it?”

She shook her head.

Tears blurred my vision.

“We had to take him off the ventilator.”

Nausea climbed up my throat as my head swam. “What?”

She nodded as tears trailed down her cheeks.

I closed my eyes and tears streamed out of them. “I should have been there with him.”

“It happened so fast,” she said.

“He must’ve been so scared,” I said, finally looking at her.

“I wasn’t supposed to tell you yet,” she said, covering my hand with her own. “But I knew you needed to know.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said, knowing the sentiment was inadequate.

“I’m so sorry for you too,” she said. “I know Ky loved you.”

Even though he’d never said it, I knew he did too. Now, I’d never get the chance to hear it from his own lips. I’d never feel his arms wrapped around me. I’d never experience him laughing at something I said. I’d never get to experience what being loved by him felt like again. “I loved him too.”

“He hasn’t visited you?” she asked, a sliver of hope in her voice.

I shook my head. “I knew something didn’t feel right.”

“I hope it’s not your heart,” she said with a hopeful look despite her bloodshot eyes.

“You heard?” I asked.

“It’s Ky’s heart.”

I blinked hard. “What?”

“The transplant. It’s his heart you have inside of you,” she said.

I pressed my hand to my chest—right over my heart. The rhythmic beat throbbed beneath the bandage under my hospital gown as tears rushed out of my eyes. “How?”

“It was his brain that was failing, not his heart,” she said through her own tears.

“Oh my God,” I said, unable to believe what she was telling me. “This isn’t right.”

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