Page 18 of Healed
“Michelle…”
“No,” she said, her voice sharpening for one last moment, and God, there she was again. Gabriella’s mother. Harley’s old lady. “You do not get to argue with me about my own daughter. I know what she gave up. I watched her do it. I watched her walk back into rooms she should have run from because I was still inside them. I watched her smile at men who disgusted her because she thought it might keep Nico calm enough to leave me alone. I watched her become a ghost in front of me, and every day I begged God to take me so she could leave without looking back.”
My throat closed.
“I should have been brave enough to end it myself. I should have followed Harley when I had the chance. But damn it, I was selfish enough to stay. To want more time with her. Ask her what happened here, Luke. Don’t let her shut down. Don’t let her turn cold and bitter. Get her to talk and open up. Help her process. Help her forget me and everything about this place.”
Her fingers tightened around me. “But do something for me first. Please.”
“Anything.”
“I don’t want to bleed out on this floor. I don’t want Gabriella to come down here and find me like this. I don’t want her last memory of me to be another thing she failed to save.”
Dante went very still beside us.
I knew what she was asking before she said it.
And I hated her for it. And I hated that it was the only real choice she had left.
“Anything but that. Don’t ask me to do that.”
“I am asking you because I trust you.”
“That’s a terrible reason. I make awful decisions.”
“You love her,” Michelle whispered, tears slipping into her hair. “And because you love her, you’ll do what I couldn’t. You’ll free her from this place and make her live again.”
I stared at her for a long moment, trying to find another way, another answer, anything that didn’t end with me putting a bullet in the mother of the woman I loved.
“Tell her I’m sorry,” she said. “Tell her I loved her more than anything. Tell her she was never supposed to save me. Tell her she already did.”
“No.” The word escaped before I could stop it. “No,” I repeated, shaking my head. “No, absolutely fucking not. We are not doing this.”
“We’re running out of time here,” Dante said, moving closer to look at Michelle’s wound.
“We’re leaving,” I said in response. “Help me pick her up.”
“Luke—”
“No. We’ll carry you.”
A sad smile touched her lips.
“We’ll carry you,” I said again, more firmly this time. “Dante weighs roughly the same as a small planet and I’ve carried him plenty. Between the two of us, we can get you upstairs.”
“Luke.”
“We’ll get you to the cars.”
“Luke.”
“We’ll find a doctor.”
“Luke.”
“We’ll—”
“Stop.”
