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Mom’s Caregiver.
“Is everything okay?”
“No.”
He tipped the phone to show me four words.
Time to come home.
When he looked down at me, his eyes were watery, his whole body slumped in defeat, and I knew. I knew everything was about to change for him.
Nate was going to lose the only person he had left. His mom.
“Are you okay?” I whispered, brokenhearted for him already.
Immediately, I winced. Of course he wasn’t. Who would be?
He didn’t respond, though. He just clung to me, bringing me close so he could bury his face in my hair.
Nate gave me the softest kiss just over my pulse, leaving his lips there as he spoke. “I’m going to have to be.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Nate
Iunderstood from an early age that my life would be nothing like the movies. Chaos, torment, blood on my hands. That was my future. I’d long since come to terms with the idea that the ghosts that plagued me when I closed my eyes would be my only companions if I lived to old age.
Happily ever after was for people who could pay for it, and I’d always been poor.
Cash poor. House poor. Life poor. Love poor.
Then came Mari.
From the moment I saw her, I knew who she was. I saw her. All those sharp edges hiding softness she couldn’t show. All that pain she was drowning in. The grief that felt so similar to mine, I wondered if they were twins. Pushing her away was supposed to be easy. She was exactly what I needed to avoid. She was a kingpin, for fuck’s sake. But Mari had a way of digging under walls if you let her, and if she let you tear hers down in return? It was everything.
But there were no fairy tales for people like us. Not in life. All we could hope for was more kindness in death than we’d been granted on earth.
“What can I do?” she asked quietly.
We hadn’t moved from the stairs, not since I’d gotten the text. I just stood there, staring at the four words that would change it all.
Time to come home.
My chest was tight, and every breath was a struggle. Is it hot in here?
I didn’t know. It all sucked. Everything sucked. Life sucked.
No, my past life sucked. This life, the one where I got Mari and Greyson and Dominic? Where I had a family that would kill for me? Die for me?
This one was good. So good.
I should’ve known it would never last.
When?
Tomorrow.
It’s not tomorrow yet.
