memories in my brain. “My dad ... he ... he was going to hurt you.”
Her fingertips brush against my cheek. “But he didn’t. You saved me.”
I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, and my hand freezes when I spot the thin, red slit along her neck. “What happened? Are you hurt?”
She shakes her head. “I’m fine. You need to rest. Close your eyes.”
I grip her shoulders. “I don’t want to rest. What happened? Where’s my father? What about my sister and Gwennie?”
“They’re safe. They’re staying at my place because theirs is a crime scene at the moment.” Her eyes soften as she takes my hand. “Graham, your father is dead.”
A tsunami of relief crashes on me. Dead. Gone forever. Thank fuck. “How?”
“The cops showed up in the nick of time. He tried to hurt me, but they stopped him. Shot him in the head. They arrested the other two.”
I wrap my arms around her and pull her against my chest. “I’m so sorry you had to see that. I’m sorry he hurt you. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get you out of there. Eva, I’m so sorry for everything.”
“We’re all okay. That’s what matters.”
I pull back to look at her as I stroke her delicate face. “Are we okay?”
She pulls her bottom lip between her teeth as her eyes bounce between mine. “I ... I can’t answer that right now.”
My heart sinks. Of course she can’t answer that question. She’s just been through hell because of my mistakes, my choices.
“I just don’t want to lose you.”
Her gaze drops from mine. “Then you shouldn’t have lied to me. You shouldn’t have done what you did.”
“I know my intentions weren’t right in the beginning, but everything changed. You changed me. I didn’t know how to get out of my father’s mess, but it’s done now. He’s gone. I can finally make a different life for myself. We can be together and put all of this behind us.”
Her brown eyes fill with tears as they meet mine. “I don’t know if I can.”
I cradle her face, holding my whole world in my hands. “Try. Please try, Eva. I’ll wait for as long as you need me to. Just please say you’ll try. I don’t want to live without you.”
Tears roll down her cheeks.
“Please,” I say again, pressing my lips to hers. “I love you.”
She pulls back and slides off the bed. I immediately feel the loss, feel her slipping away. My breaths are uneven, dread constricting my airways. I move to follow her, but I’m hooked up to these damn machines.
Eva toys with the hem of her shirt, chewing on her bottom lip. “I’m not ready to forgive you, Graham. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to. I fell in love with someone you’re not. Someone you pretended to be. I thought what we had was real—”
“It is!”
“But it was based on a lie. You betrayed me. You betrayed my trust. And too much has happened.” She runs her fingers through her hair, pulling at the roots, and her eyes squeeze shut. “I just need time to myself. Time to process all of this. My dad, my mom, Eric’s letters, you and your father. It’s too much. There have been too many lies.”
I swallow my emotion, stuffing it down as far as it can go. She’s telling me what she needs, and as much as I want to be with her, I have to do what’s best for her. Up until this point, I’ve done what’s best for my father, what’s best for my sister and Gwennie, but now it’s time to give Eva what she needs—the life she deserves.
Even if it’s a life without me.
All of my hope rushes out of me, leaving me limp and deflated. “I am so sorry for everything, Eva.”
“I know.”
She turns and moves slowly toward the door, each of her steps a nail in the coffin around my heart.
Please come back to me, baby.
When she gets to the doorway, she stops and looks at me one last time over her shoulder.
Then she’s gone.
Chapter Fifteen
Eva
I leave the hospital and head to my mom’s.
I called her while I was waiting for Graham to get out of surgery.
He almost died.
The fear of losing him, the thought of him no longer being on this earth, shook me in a way I never want to experience again. My anger towards him doesn’t lessen my love for him. My broken heart still beats for him.
And that’s why I