AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Dylan cleared his throat and leaned nearer. Taking my hand, he squeezed my brittle bones. “Just remember you survived it, Nerida. Whatever happened, you survived it.”
Margot gasped quietly, tears rolling silently down her cheeks. Her skin had whitened, and her fingers shook as she clutched her coffee mug. “You might have survived it, but...he didn’t, did he?”
I winced.
My headache pounded.
And all I could give her was the weakest, saddest smile as I whispered, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I’m about to share. Endlessly sorry that I wasn’t able to protect him. Eternally sorry that I wasn’t able to find him. And I-I—”
My voice cracked with tears.
An ocean roared through me, splashing up my ribs, wetting all my pieces. The salt stung, the cold weight crushed, and the sharks swimming in the tide chewed me alive, all while I silently screamed.
“Nerida...it’s okay.” Dylan shifted until our thighs touched, wrapping his arm around my shoulders again.
I shouldn’t draw comfort from him.
But I did.
I let myself be held by a man all while I sank into the tale of another.
A man who was my soulmate.
My always.
My ever after.
A man who suffered.
A man who broke.
A man who I lost forever...
Chapter Seventeen
*
Aslan
*
(Heart in Swedish: Hjärta)
DID ANYONE EVER TRULY KNOW THEIR LIVES were about to end?
What sort of intuition did you need to be able to sense death sneaking ever closer, breathing down the back of your neck, sharpening its axe, all while waiting for the perfect moment to strike?
Whatever skill it took, I did not have it.
For all of Neri’s nudges and knowings, she didn’t have the necessary sight.
We were both as blind as the other as I woke her up on her twentieth birthday with my mouth on hers and my hand slipping between her silky thighs.
I had an itinerary planned for today.
Three things I wanted to do to celebrate the twenty incredible years my wife had been alive. I’d been lucky enough to share eight of those years and planned on sharing a thousand more.
Starting with today.
