AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I don’t know why, but hearing her approval means more than having Dante’s or Raphael’s. Maybe it’s because she’s a mother, so she understands my reasoning a little better than anyone else. Or maybe it’s because there’s been a hole in my life where my mother used to be, and it has ached to be filled ever since she died. Whatever the reason, though, I’m happy to have Alice in my life and in Liam’s.
“I have one last question,” Raphael says, patting Liam on the back and getting a loud burp from the baby as a reward.
I hand him a blanket to wipe Liam’s face. “Okay.”
“Do you love my brother?”
“Yes.”
There’s no hesitation in my answer. The single word comes straight away, clear as day to the front of my mind. And there’s no regret, no second-guessing, or uncertainty. Because I fell in love the moment I saw him on that dance floor. It was like every sappy love song, dreamy movie, and romantic book suddenly made sense. That the instant connection and the idea of a soulmate existing out there isn’t just another impossibility. It’s real. And it happened to us.
“I loved you first.”
I swing my head around and lock eyes with the man from the dance floor and fall in love all over again. Michael’s awake.
36
Michael
Pain.
Every inch of my body burns and itches and aches with it.
It’s all I know among the endless darkness surrounding me.
If it wasn’t for the pain, I would think I’m dead and that this is hell.
Maybe it is.
I can’t tell any longer.
I drift in and out of consciousness, lost in the numbing void that surrounds me, suffocating me.
How long I float is unclear. Has it been a day, a week, a year? There’s no way to measure time here.
Exhaustion tugs at me. I try to fight it harder than ever before because I don’t want to fade back into the void. I want to stay. I want to wake up.
But I’m too weak.
Just as the darkness looms, I hear a whisper. I follow it like a string until I finally hear a voice. Her voice. An angel’s voice.
“I love you, Michael.”
Like a siren, she calls to me from somewhere in the darkness, luring me away from the black depths and toward the surface, toward where I want to be.
She’s everywhere. Her warmth surrounds me the closer I get to her. Above me, a small light pinpricks the surface of the dark, and I fight my way toward it.
“Come back to us. Please.”
I’m trying, Rose. I’m trying.
Something’s different about the dark this time. I’m aware of my other senses instead of the constant feeling of floating. The smell of lavender vanilla body wash, the steady cadence beeping of a machine, and the warmth of a soft, familiar body pressed close to me.
Rose.
“Do you love my brother?”
“Yes.”
