Page 78 of Unearthed Dreams

My eyes snapped from Charlie’s face to her mother’s. Their features were so similar—all except their eyes. Emma had the same amber color Jasper did, unlike the blue of the rest of the family. Otherwise, the same. It physically ached to look at her, eyes open, mouth moving. I needed Charlie to look at me, to speak to me.

I moved to the opposite side of the bed and grasped Charlie’s small hand in mine. It was cold, lifeless, but the monitor behind me beeped in a steady rhythm. I bent my head, resting in on our joined hands.

And then came the tears came in earnest. A broken sob escaped me, and then another. I couldn’t hold it in anymore.The dam had broken, and it was too much. It was all too fucking much and without the one person who brought me peace, who brought me light, everything felt so fucking dark. So dark and miserable and unbearable.

“We’ll give you a minute,” Emma said before leaving the room.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed or how many tears I’d cried, but when the only sounds in the room were the machines keeping my heart alive, when the well inside me had run dry, a gentle hand squeezed my shoulder.

When I looked up, Dr. Elena Stone stood over me, her own eyes red and glossy.

“Hey, Kai.”

“Chase?”

“He’s in the next room. A little banged up and bruised, but he got lucky.”

I nodded. It’s all I could do unless I wanted to curse the fucking world at how unfair that shit was. Chase, lying in the next room with a few bruises while his sister lay here unconscious and hooked up to machines.

“They need to take Charlie for an MRI.”

“Can I go with her?”

“I’m sorry, you can’t.”

I nodded again, but rose after kissing the back of my girl’s hand.

“Chase.”

He opened his eyes and jerked in his hospital bed, wincing at the sudden movement.

Good.

“Kai, I’m?—”

“No.”

He swallowed and tears welled in his eyes.

“You are done.”

“With… life? You here to take me out, man? ‘Cause you’d be doing me a favor.” His head fell back against his pillow.

“You are done with the drinking, done with the drugs.”

“Kai, man, I don’t?—”

“I will help you, but it ends today.”

Chase nodded, staring at the ceiling.

“I don’t know how.”

I pulled up a chair next to his bed.

“I met my wife when I was thirteen.”

Chase’s head whipped in my direction, eyes wide, no doubt thinking a married man was fucking his little sister.