Page 86

Her eyes widen, and her face pales.

“Y-you killed him?”

“We both did.” I nod to Lucien, who sits in the chair next to her hospital bed. She continues to cry into her hands at the realization that this entire situation is fucked up.

I close the distance between myself and the foot of her bed, and I rest my hands on the stiff material. I look through her as I speak.

“There is nothing I won’t do for her. No line I won’t cross, no life I won’t take. Evelyn isn’t a want— she’s a need. And if you ever stand in the way of that, Astra, I won’t blink before removing you too.”

I turn around to walk out, but look back over my shoulder, giving her my final words.

“You know she took the pills from you. If she doesn’t wake up— that’s on you.”

I storm out of the room and head down the hall to see Evelyn.

She’d better wake up. She can’t fucking die.

* * *

If I have learned anything over the last two days, it’s that I cannot live without her.

I sit on the chair next to her bed, watching the monitor. The machine is steady. Her chest rises and falls only with the assistance of the ventilator.

She was taken here by ambulance, and they pumped her stomach. They tried other medications as well, but nothing worked to regain consciousness.

She has been in the ICU. Her doctor came in this morning and told me her condition is stable. Yeah fucking right. She looks like she could die at any moment, and the thought has me homicidal.

He told me the amount she consumed was enough to shut down her central nervous system. There was no bleeding in her brain, no trauma, but he doesn’t know if or when she will wake up. He called it a drug-induced coma.

I’ll wait as long as I have to.

The door opens, and her parents slowly walk into the room. Both of them look like shit. Heavy bags under their swollen, red eyes. They would have never known if it weren’t for me. I fucking saved her. Again.

I just hope I wasn’t too fucking late.

Her father nods at me, and her mother does the same. She approaches her bedside and takes her hand, holding it firmly.

She leans down and kisses her forehead.

“Please wake up, sweetie. Please….”

Her father stands behind his wife, watching the machines as they keep their only daughter alive.

“You haven’t left?”

Her father questions me with a curious tone.

I shake my head. “No.”

“I can tell. You’re wearing the same clothes as the night she came in.”

He gives me a sympathetic look.

“Go home. Go shower. Eat. We will stay with her until you get back.”

“No.”

He pinches his brows together.