Aaron’s P.O.V.
Her lips wouldn’t stop quivering. We were still in the waiting room, anxious to hear from someone. I didn’t know who we’d hear about first, because Adam, Noah, and Ariana had all been in that car. We still didn’t now how it happened.
A middle-aged man in a long, white jacket walked up to us a few minutes later, and we stood. Dr. Alvarez, his nametag read.
“Mr. and Mrs. Walker are both just fine, but I’m afraid your husband is in grave condition.”
It took Elena a moment to take it all in. “Take me to him,” she finally pleaded.
The doctor led her, and I followed behind them.
He stopped at the door. “I’ll let you have minute alone with him.” Alvarez walked away.
After a few seconds of hesitation, Elena walked into the room with her head held high.
I was still standing right around the corner, afraid of what I would see once I walked in. I hesitated as Elena had, but then finally rounded that small corner. I froze as soon as I could see what was in front of me.
There was my brother, laying on the bed shirtless, revealing all of his injuries. He was a replica of me, now that his eyes were closed. If it weren’t for the dozens of bloody scratches and stitches and horrid bruises, I’d think I was looking in the mirror.
Elena stood by the bed and laid her hand on Adam’s. His eyes opened slowly, and he smiled weakly.
“There’s my girl,” he sighed. “How are Noah and Ari?”
“They’re fine,” Elena told her in a thin voice, on the edge of breaking. “And so will you.”
He suddenly winced in pain. “I was only two blocks away,” he began in a rough voice. “So close. So stupid! It’s all my fault. I should have been more careful.”
“Please,” Elena whispered. “Don’t speak.”
He raised his hand to Elena’s face. She held it there.
“I love you,” he told her. “And tell Naomi that, too. Tell her I’m sorry that I won’t be there for her.”
“No,” Elena cried. “Don’t say your goodbyes just yet, Adam. Don’t you dare leave me!”
He took one last look at Elena before looking over at me, still standing by the door.
“Take care of them,” Adam whispered. His hand fell from her face and his eyes closed.
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.
“No!” Elena shrieked.
I came up from behind and pulled her away, because I knew that if she got a hold of Adam, she would never want to let go.
She struggled to break free from my grasp, reaching out for Adam, crying, as doctors rushed into the room, crowding over the corpse.
I had to bite down hard on my lip to not let Elena go. It was almost impossible for me to deny Elena something she really wanted, especially this.
She finally gave in and dug her face in my chest, sobbing.
My brother was gone. He was dead, and I could feel that a small part of me had gone along with him.
The silence in the car was killing me.
Elena just sat there, her tired eyes red and puffy from all of her sobbing. Her hands were clenched into fists, knuckles turning white.
I had never seen this devastated, and I wanted so badly to comfort her, but at the same time, I was afraid to even lift a finger and set something off.
I couldn’t help but feel guilty. All the times that I held Elena while he was away, all the times I laid my lips on hers…
And now he was gone.
Just say something already, I told myself. Anything.
But when I opened my mouth, she beat me to it.
“Pull over.”
I closed my mouth again and obeyed. I turned the key in the ignition and turned to look at her.
She was looking right at me, and the pain in her sad blue eyes was obvious.
That’s it, I thought, giving in to my need to comfort her. I wrapped my arms tight around her, holding her close. Her nails dug into my skin as she cried.
“It’s not fair,” she mumbled into my neck.
I smoothed her hair, feeling her pain. “No, it’s not.” I paused. “Listen, Elena, I’m sorry for all of this. I’ve been making you suffer by not keeping my promise in letting you live your life happily with Adam.” I chocked on the last word, and Elena cringed.
“Sounds like the guilt is eating the both of us alive,” she whispered. She took a deep breath and pulled away from me.
I wiped away a tear that was making it’s way down her cheek. “Some birthday, huh?”
She flinched, and I sighed, turning the key again.
I was parking the car in front of the house a few minutes later. When I went around to open the door for Elena and help her out, she was staring at the house, a sadness in her eyes. They looked scared.
When she hopped down from the car, I squeezed her hand. She pulled away from my grasp and started to run.
“Damn it,” I mumbled as I got back in the car, hoping that my hunch of where she was going was right.
Skye’s P.O.V.
I could hear my sneakers against the pavement as I ran.
I couldn’t face Naomi. I wouldn’t be able to look into her violet eyes, into her eyes that were so much like her father’s had been.
How could I ever enter that house again, with all of those burning memories still alive inside my head. Adam was a fire in my heart, a flame that refused to die.
And I wouldn’t let it. I couldn’t allow myself to forget him so easily. I couldn’t be happy now. I couldn’t ever have been happy. It was almost as if being miserable was my unfortunate fate, my inevitable destiny.
And then I burst through the doors, gasping and choking on my tears as I looked around.
It was exactly as I remembered it. The place where we’d met. Where Adam had proposed to me…
I fell to my knees and sobbed into my hands.
“I thought I might find you here.”
I looked up at the stage. I must have been hallucinating, because I could’ve sworn I saw Adam right there, in the flesh.
I slowly realized that it was Aaron who was standing in front of me.
A whimper escaped my lips, and he jumped down from the stage and put his arms around me. “Let’s go home. You need to rest.”
“Home!?” I shrieked. “What makes you think I can ever step foot in that house again?”
I dug my face in his chest, and he held me closer. “Because I’ll be there to help you through it,” he said in a somber voice.
I looked up at him, touching his face with my fingertips. “No. More than ever, it could never work between us.”
He winced. “Why not?” My hand dropped from his face, but he pulled it up to his lips and kissed them softly. I pulled my hand away. “Why can’t you just try to move on? I know it hurts. It hurts me, too. But couldn’t just do it for me? For Adam?”
I stared at him in disbelief. “Because it’s not fair to him! You want me to forget about him, as if nothing had happened. I could never do that to him!”
“Not fair to him!?” He asked, his voice incredulous. “Skye, he’s dead! You’re going to except that sooner or later!”
“How could you sat that so easily?” I cried. My whole body shook, and my throat already hurt badly from all of the crying, let alone the yelling. I was too weak for this, too tired.
“I’m sorry,” he said in a soft voice. “But I need a better reason than that to why you can’t just try to love me the way I love you. The way Adam always loved you.”
“Because I couldn’t possibly bare it! Do you have any idea how I would feel having to look at you everyday and remember?” I looked down.
“Nothing’s impossible, Elena,” he said softly in a hopeful voice, lifting my face to look at him. “You look just like him. Too much like him.” I swallowed hard. “I just can’t right now, Aaron. I’m sorry. It‘s too soon.”
He sighed. “I tried not to get my hopes up too much. Anyway, just come back to the house. You need sleep. Please. I’m begging you.”
“Fine,” I answered him. “I’ll sleep. But make me go back there. Not yet.”
He forced a smile. “The car’s out in the back.”
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