Page 100 of Crushed Vow

“You’re bossy,” Ethan mumbled through a weak laugh.

“Still better than dying on me.”

They bickered for a few minutes until, finally, the tension began to bleed from the room. I found myself smiling despite myself. Then Genevieve turned to me.

“Did he ever tell you about the time he accidentally got handcuffed to a shopping cart?”

Ethan groaned. “Don’t.”

I blinked. “He what?”

“Oh, it was epic,” she grinned, eyes sparkling. “He was helping me film this prank video for my YouTube—back whenwe were still dumb and broke—and he thought it’d be funny to pretend he was stealing a cart. But the security guy was new and took it seriously.”

“I was trying to impress her,” Ethan muttered under his breath.

“You failed. Spectacularly,” Genevieve beamed.

We all laughed. Even me. It was the kind of laughter that surprised me—the kind that bubbled up from some forgotten part of me that hadn’t been touched in months. It felt light, reckless. Pure.

For a moment, I wasn’t Charlotte the captive. Charlotte the broken. I was just a girl laughing in a hospital room with two people who didn’t treat me like glass.

Then her phone rang.

Genevieve checked the screen, sighed, and answered with a quick, “I’m on my way.” When she hung up, she rolled her eyes. “My boss is officially pissed. I’ve exhausted my break. I’ve gotta go.”

She leaned down, gently helping Ethan adjust the pillows again, then pecked him on the cheek. “I’ll stop by later, okay?”

He nodded, murmuring something too soft for me to hear. Genevieve turned to me with a brief smile.

“Nice meeting you, Charlotte. I hope we get to talk more.”

“Yeah,” I said faintly. “Me too.”

And then she was gone, the door clicking softly behind her.

And suddenly, the room felt colder.

Like reality had crept back in.

Ethan turned to me again, his voice softer now. “Thank you for coming.”

I nodded, unable to look away from the door Genevieve had just walked through. Something inside me twisted.

I wasn’t sure if it was jealousy.

Or the aching realization that someone else had been holding Ethan’s world together while I was drowning in mine.

“She’s beautiful,” I teased lightly, watching Ethan’s face as he laughed weakly.

“She is,” he admitted. “She’s beautiful at heart too.”

“Does she have a boyfriend?”

He blinked. “No. Why do you ask?”

I tilted my head. “I just saw the way she was looking at you. I think she really likes you. Like... really.”

A crooked smile tugged at his lips, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “She’s my best friend.”