“I don’t think I can control this,” I whisper.
“You are controlling it,” he replies immediately. “You’re still on the road. You’re still steady. You’re doing it.”
My grip tightens painfully. “It doesn’t feel like it.”
“I know,” he says quietly. “But you are.”
My throat burns. “I don’t like this.”
“I know.”
“I don’t—” My voice falters. “I don’t want to die like this.”
The words slip out before I can stop them. I sound so freaking desperate. I don't sound like me at all. “You’re not going to.”
There’s no hesitation in his voice. No doubt. Just… certainty. And for some reason, that scares me more. Because what if he’s wrong?
My vision blurs for a second. I blink it away.
“I haven’t done anything,” I whisper, my voice trembling now despite everything I’m trying to hold together. “I haven’t lived properly. I haven’t figured anything out. I haven’t even—” My throat tightens.
“I haven’t even let myself be happy.” The admission sits heavy in the air between us.
"Sunshine," he whispers, "I am not losing you today." I can hear his voice wavering. "I am not losing you ever, baby. No matter what...nothing's happening to you."
“I wanted to try,” I admit softly. “I was trying, Aryan.”
“I know you were,” he says, and there’s something in his voice now—something certain, something that feels like it’s wrapping around the panic clawing up my chest.
“I wanted to stay,” I whisper.
My hands shake. “I wanted to see what this could be.” What we could be.
"We will..." He breathes deeply, "You and me...we'll get married, have kids if you want them, I will see you grow yourinterior business from scratch and I will force you to eat and sleep when you forget you're human and need those things." His voice breaks, "We will see everything. I will make sure of that. I want to see you heal Ishika. This isn't fair and it's not going to happen."
Tears stream down my face, how do I tell him that I can't see any out from this, how do I say I want all of those things he mentioned and so much more. I have always kept myself locked inside a cage and only recently...only after meeting this man did I realize how pathetic and stupid I was, and how much I craved for love, for being seen instead of vanishing...and I had finally started to...No, please.
My head jerks up when I see his car drive in front of me. My heart stops when I see what he's doing. His car is driving in front of me now. “Aryan—what are you doing?” My voice rises, panic cutting through every word. “Move! Move your car!”
He doesn’t.
“Listen to me,” he says. Too calm. Too steady.
“You’re going to hit me.”
“No!” The word rips out of me. “No, I’m not—move!”
“I’m not moving.”
My chest heaves. “You’re insane!”
“Probably,” he says quietly. “But you’re going to be okay.”
Tears spill over now, hot and unstoppable.
“I don’t want to hurt you!”
“You won’t.”
