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Mateo approaches me again, this time sitting down next to me. “The room next door is prepared for you. Aiden is waiting there, as is your team for a checkup. It’s late. You need to rest.”
I probably do, and I definitely should, but everything inside me protests. “I can rest later. Tiero needs me; that’s why I’m here. I want to stay with him. It’s not like sitting in that chair is exhausting.”
Mateo’s face hardens, and he shakes his head. “Not a chance, princess. Tiero is sleeping, and so should you… or the two men who love you will have my balls.”
Damn these overbearing men.
He’s about to scoop me up, but I stop him. “I will walk. I don’t want Tiero to see you carrying me. He might ask why, and I don’t want him to know.”
“Ella, you have to tell him.”
“No, I don’t. Promise me, Mateo, you won’t tell him either,” I implore him.
“Tiero and I don’t have secrets. I can’t keep this from him.”
“Mateo, please. It would upset him too much. He needs all his strength to heal. Please,” I plead.
Mateo looks over at his brother, then at me. His jaw clenches, the conflict clear on his face. “For now.” It’s all he agrees to, before he scoops me up and, despite my protests, carries me next door.
Thank God Tiero is asleep and didn’t see. I’m determined not to burden him with the knowledge of my newfound mortality.
Doctor Simmons and Becky chastised me for removing the monitors. They run a few tests and are concerned about the way my heart is coping with the increased stress levels. Ah well, I’d like to see anyone stay calm when faced with the loss of a loved one.
Strangely, Aiden isn’t angry with me. He seems to have accepted that I do what I want anyway and has been supportive, even if he disagrees with me. I love him harder for it.
It still baffles me how I can love two men so completely at the same time, despite having chosen one over the other. But that choice wasn’t because of the love I feel, it was purely based on a lifestyle choice and how I wanted to live my life.
And wasn’t it Tiero who ultimately made the choice? He decided to walk away, finally accepting we couldn’t have a future together. It takes a great man to do that. My respect and love for him grew as a result, making being here and seeing him so vulnerable all the harder.
As it’s the middle of the night by now, we all agree to get some rest and for me to go back to Tiero in the morning. Aiden joins me on my bed and weaves his arms around me. With his familiar scent enveloping me, I drift off.
The next morning, Aiden carries me back to Tiero’s room and with new medication in my blood to keep me calm, everyone is hopeful today will go better than yesterday.
Tiero is still asleep when Aiden lowers me carefully into the chair. He’s standing behind me and rubbing my shoulders soothingly, staring at the man he once thought his nemesis.
“Is it strange that I feel more whole being here with the two of you?” Aiden whispers.
I shake my head. “It’s the same for me.”
“We haven’t really had a chance to sit down and talk about last weekend, to unpack that mindfuck. Everything seems to happen all at once, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down.”
I reach for his hand on my shoulder and look up at him. Aiden is pensive, his dark-chocolate brown eyes focused on the man lying in the bed.
Tiero looks so peaceful. If it wasn’t for the sounds from the machines, anybody could think he was already dead.
“I felt it on the weekend too,” Aiden admits. “This pull to him… to you… the three of us together… it’s strangely familiar.” He pauses, running his finger over his lower lip. “I couldn’t have pulled that trigger… not without killing a part of me. I don’t understand it, but it’s undeniable.”
“Do you believe in what Gandalf said then?”
He lets out a long sigh, his gaze dropping to my face. Our eyes connect, and we get lost in one another, drawn in by a silent call, a hidden desire to… to what? Unify? Be one? Fulfill our destiny? That sense of coming home pervades, but it’s a house that’s not complete… not yet.
The moment is broken when Tiero stirs. Can he sense our presence? Can he feel this energy bouncing between the three of us?
“I’ll leave you with him now. I need to make a few phone calls,” he says, and I notice how tired he looks. “Get some rest, Ade. There’s a perfectly good bed next door. You need your rest too.” He nods, not even fighting me on this.
“Sunshine?” He waits for me to look up again. “You need to tell Tiero the truth. You said he deserves to know.”
“That was before all of this,” I say, pointing at all the apparatuses.
