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I would give anything to just sit here. To always watch over her. To never be away from her. Fuck, I’d be happy to die and stay as a ghost, just so I never had to lose her.
How much longer before the police returned?
How much longer could I stare—
My phone vibrated in my pocket, making me flinch.
Had she text me?
Was she looking for me to keep me hidden or to say what she knew we had to say? Were the police inside the house, inspecting her bedroom again and seeing the chaos I’d unleashed? Fuck, they’d wrap me in chains and never let me free.
With a sharp cry, Neri suddenly lifted her head.
The blue glow of her screen etched her throat and chin, shadowing her eyes as if she’d sold her soul to step into the underworld to find me.
“Aslan,” she breathed as our eyes locked across the garden.
I couldn’t speak. Could barely move.
“He’s here! Dad, Mum, I tracked his phone, and he’s here!”
I flinched at how loudly she announced my location.
Perhaps she’d gone through all the scenarios I had and realised I would eventually be caught. That there was no point delaying the inevitable. Perhaps she was doing me a kindness by revealing where I was to the police so we could get it over and done with.
Neri...
Fuck. I didn’t want to say goodbye.
I didn’t think I could.
I’d vomit and break and get on my fucking knees.
I’d beg. I’d murder. I’d hide under a rock if only I could stay.
If only I can keep her...for just a little longer.
A wash of heated despair and sickening nausea clutched me around the throat as she tossed her phone onto the glass-topped outdoor table where we’d eaten so many meals as a family, leaped off the deck, and bolted toward me.
Her black dress billowed around her thighs. The rose gold stitching on her torso glinted like bleeding stars. And I grunted with every trapped and savaging emotion inside me as she soared into my arms, crunching my back against the steps, burrowing her face into the crook of my neck and hugging me so damn hard.
“You’re here. God, I was so worried. So, so worried.” Her voice was wet with tears and sharp with love. “Aslan. God, I’m so sorry. All of this is my fault. I’m so, so sorry.”
“Nerida.” My arms snapped around her. I hoisted her higher on my lap. “I was so afraid I’d never see you again.” My voice broke. My soul shattered. And I didn’t care if police were about to pour through the door and arrest me. I didn’t care that Anna and Jack were in the kitchen, able to see every touch, every kiss, every promise.
I had no control as I let loose the agony, the misery, and all the heavy black depression that I’d never truly mastered and broke spectacularly in her arms.
A silent sob wracked my spine as I pressed my forehead to her frangipani-scented hair.
Loss.
Longing.
Desire.
Desperation.
It was too much. Too hard. Too painful.
I can’t lose her.
I can’t fucking do this.
I buried myself into her as she burrowed into me, both of us clinging for life, suffering such fucking heartache, such motherfucking anguish. “I’m so sorry, Neri,” I growled. “So sorry for pushing you, canim. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t mean to ruin this. I didn’t mean to—”
“You have nothing to apologise for. It was me. All me. I should never have shut you out. I should never have thought I could do this on my own.” Pulling away, she nudged her nose with mine. “I can’t do any of this without you, Aslan. None of it. I don’t want to. You’re it for me.”
My chest caved in on itself as wretchedness wrung me dry. “But the police—”
“Have been dealt with. They’re gone and not coming back.”
“What?” I froze, hissing between my teeth as bruised muscles sent agony through me. “H-How?”
“I told them about Ethan. I made sure they know it wasn’t you. Dad knows it wasn’t you. Everyone knows.”
“Everyone?” I sucked in a breath. “How...how much do they know?”
Sitting back, she ran her hands through my hair, finding injuries and bumps I hadn’t been aware of. Jack hadn’t held back. For a marine biologist in his fifties, he was as vicious as my crime lord of a father.
“Everything,” she whispered. “They know everything.” Looking over her shoulder, she smiled softly. “Hi, Dad. Hi, Mum.”
I shot to my feet—or as fast as I could with my bones screeching and protesting. Placing Neri carefully on the ground, I stumbled to the side as my pounding head made my vision feather with grey before solidifying back into night. “Jack. Anna.”
Swiping at the wetness on my cheeks, I stood before the two people who’d kept me alive far longer than I should’ve been permitted, and I had no idea what to say.
