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Chapter Twenty-Nine
Niko
“I’m Aislin.”
I stand there frozen, in shock, and stare down at the girl in my arms clutching my shirt, desperately wanting to believe the words she just spoke but not daring to. It will destroy me if they aren’t true. It’ll shatter the little bit of sanity I have left and will leave me in pieces. Pieces I know with every part of me will never be put back together. After all these years of searching for her; all the sweat, blood, tears, and broken relationships; the time, effort, frustration, and hopelessness. For her to be standing in front of me right now… It can’t be true. It can’t, but I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.
“No!” I snarl and watch her flinch. I want to feel bad, and a part of me does, but what she’s saying is incomprehensible. How could she be so cruel? What gives her the right to think she can give me the one thing I want most in the world, only to snatch it away when the truth comes out?
“I remember,” she rasps. “I remember you. The treehouse. The drawing you made me for my birthday. You saving me from the bullies.” She looks down at the bracelet then at the one on my wrist, before lifting her eyes back to me. “The bracelet I gave you that last Christmas.” Her eyes turn frightful, and her voice trembles when she continues. “I remember the bus not coming. I remember being taken.” Her eyes fill with tears. “Please, Niko. Please believe me.”
My heart stops as her words hit me. My eyes take her in. Blood drips from the corner of her mouth and purple is starting to form above her eye. It sends my blood boiling. The scars on her forehead and cheeks have my vision going red, knowing the guy on the floor writhing in pain and is currently being handcuffed is the cause behind them. I force myself to look past her injuries.
Green eyes stare up at me. Bright green, the same green I looked at so many times when I was a child. My chest tightens.
High eyebrow arches. Even as a child, my mother used to say she had beautifully arched eyebrows. My breath gets stuck in my throat.
Brown hair. It’s different than it was before, darker, but looking closer, I see the same natural golden highlights. My vision blurs, and my hands grip the girl in my arms tighter.
My eyes move to the hair hanging over her shoulder. I want to push it aside, but I’m scared. I’m terrified it’ll reveal the truth. A truth that will set me free and a truth that will break me.
“Niko,” she whispers, the sound coming out hoarse and broken.
I want to say her name. I want to breathe it and watch her eyes as I do so. I want to shout it to the sky and demand how God could be so cruel.
Can it be true? Can everything I’ve done for the past fifteen years of my life all come down to this? To be centered around this one girl? A girl I’ve known for all of a few weeks? To have her in my clasp and not realize who she is?
Tears gather in my eyes, and I don’t have the willpower to push them away.
“A-Aislin?” I croak out.
“I remember, Niko. I remember,” she says raggedly, her eyes wide as if she’s having a hard time believing it herself.
My knees become too weak to hold me up, and I drag her down with me to the floor. Aislin… I drag Aislin down with me. My ass hits the ground, but I make sure she’s not jarred by the impact. I sit with my legs spread wide, knees bent, with Aislin on her knees between them. She still looks uncertain.
My hand shakes, and she watches me as I reach out slowly. My fingers touch her hair, and it feels so soft. My gaze locks on her left ear, and I swallow thickly when I push her hair back. Without asking, she tilts her head to the side, knowing what I’m looking for. It takes me a minute to gather the courage to lean forward. When I do, every single ounce of air in my lungs whoosh out in a painful rush at the birthmark I see. My finger gently rubs across the raised star.
My eyes fly back to hers. “How is this possible?”
More tears leak from her eyes, and she says. “I don’t know.”
Not able to hold back any longer, and praying so fucking much she doesn’t pull away from me, I yank her into my arms. Her body stiffens slightly but then relaxes. I know she’s been through a lot, and even though she’s Aislin and she knows me better than anyone, her abhorrence to touch hasn’t changed, I’m sure. But I can’t not hold her right now. I need it more than I need my next breath. To have her here, my arms wrapped around her and feel her heart beat against my own, is more than I ever thought was possible. She was dead, gone from this world, my light forever extinguished and leaving me in pitch dark.
I bury my face in her hair and breathe in deeply. Tears fall freely from my eyes and soak her shirt as I cry every bit of tears I’ve forced back over the years. She’s here. She’s really fucking here.
“You never forgot me,” she cries into my shoulder. “You never forgot me, Niko.”
“Never,” I growl roughly.
As lights flash around us and orders are barked from one person to another, we both sit on the floor in each other’s arms and let out all the pain we both felt for so long.
* * *
It’s stillhard to believe Aislin is sitting beside me right now. My Aislin. The girl who’s consumed my mind for years. It’s surreal but feels so fucking good. Her chair is as close as it can be to mine, and we clutch our hands together tightly. I have no plans to release it anytime soon. Even if I did, I don’t think she would let me. She’s been glued to my side since we left Mr. Stewart’s house three hours ago.
When we first got to the precinct, Captain wanted to talk with me privately, but the fearful look in Aislin’s—it still feels weird using that name for her—eyes told me that wasn’t happening. I refuse to put her through anything more at the moment. I told him we would talk later. He took one look at Aislin himself and relented. Both Captain and Tavers’ faces still hold disbelief each time they look at Aislin, and I don’t blame them. Part of me is still in denial, but I know deep in my gut it’s true. I just don’t understand why I didn’t realize it before. She looks different than she did at thirteen, but parts of her are the same. I want to slit my own throat for not seeing it before. The many scars marking her face are what hid her from me at first, but now, when I look at her, past the scars, I see her. I see my North.
“I really wish you would go to the hospital,” I murmur.
