Juliana sneered. “I’m saying you could have AIDS.”
“No. No, what did you say about my mother? She’s not… She didn’t…” Sonnet’s fingers tangled in her hair and pulled. She looked around for anything. An exit to run to, her sister to cry to, her birth mother she’s been searching for in every face she’spassed. “Oh, God. She’s not dead. You’re a liar. She’s not dead! Tell me she’s not dead. Please. Please!” She sobbed, falling to her knees and the world falling on top of her.
Everything happened too quickly.
There was yelling, hands lifting her, the flash of the camera, the car ride home, and then she was in bed, but nothing felt real.
No. This couldn’t be real.
Her mother couldn’t be dead.
She was living the perfect life on a beach somewhere with all the money she’d earned, finally living at peace and in style and the way she should. She was happy and beautiful, and the sun was shining.
If she were dead, then she’d never feel sunshine again.
I’m never going to see her again.
Chapter 50
I know without being officially bonded, I cannot feel what she does. And yet, hearing her cry out, watching her rot away in her bed, smelling her burnt scent everywhere in the house… I don’t think my soul has ever ached like this before.
The sun barely had a chance to rise, but no one had slept. Since returning from the party, everything had been a blur, a mess, a chaotic desire to comfort and protect their mate. But Sonnet was lost in her grief.
Felix was well-versed in this grief, and so was Kai. Both had lost a parent. In Felix’s case, he had lost both, and he remembered being told he was never going to see them again like it was yesterday. But there was a difference. When Felix was told about his parents, he was with people he loved in a place where he felt safe. Nothing about how Sonnet was told was fair. It would leave a wound deeper than the ones she already had.
She’s hurting.
Felix winced.I know. I know.
No one knew how to help her, but there was nothing to help. There was no cure for grief. Only tolerance as time passes.
No one in the house was satisfied with not being able to do anything. Zayden had been on the phone with Maddox and the rest of the label team to help fix Sonnet’s image and narrative. As detached from the main problem as it seemed, Felix understood. This was the only way Zayden felt in control.
Jude had no control. He hadn’t stopped pacing since they got home and Sonnet into the omega suite. He was always moving, always looking for something to do, a way to jump in and help. Despite how many times Kai had barked and growled at him, he couldn’t stop. And all Kai could do was bark and growl. He couldn’t take his anger out on Juliana without flaming the fires, so all he could do was unleash it on the rest of them.
After putting Sonnet in her bed and hearing her cry herself to sleep, he remained by her side. There was a lump in the back of his throat and a deep, aching pain in his chest.
He was seven years old when his mom and dad died. Sonnet was seven years old when she was abandoned by her birth mother, given to another family she didn’t know, and then spent the rest of her life wondering when her mother would come back for her. His sorrow and hers were incomparable.
“You will get through this,” he choked, his hand finding her hip under all the piles of blankets. “I’m going to make sure that you do.I promise.”
It wasn’t an easy promise, but it was one Felix would do his damnest to uphold.
On Monday, he was able to carry Sonnet to her bath and bathe her. He kept the lights off, lit only by a few candles, and added Epsom salts and colloidal oatmeal to the water. He sat behind her to keep her body from collapsing into the water, afraid she’d willingly let herself drown. When she sobbed, he soothed her with his purrs.
On Tuesday, he moved her to the living room where she could receive more sunlight, hoping it would warm her body and heart. It didn’t, and Felix had to step in to calm her down from a panic attack twice.
Now, it is Wednesday, and Sonnet has refused food and water completely. Kai was prepared to hold her down and force her, but no one agreed to that plan. There was only one last thing Felix could think of, which was crossing a different kind of boundary.
He took her phone and went through it.
It didn’t take very long to locate what he was searching for, and it took even less for them to arrive.
“Where is she?” Summer demanded, with their mom, Katherine, right behind.
Felix opened the door wide and pointed to the living room. All four alphas stood on the sidelines as the two women charged forward, engulfing Sonnet in tight hugs. When her eyes opened and she saw her mom, she burst into tears and held on to her like the lifeline she had needed.
It was touching, and it was terrible.
