that this was not the outcome I wanted. I just wanted to feel better, you know? I didn’t want my actions to end in someone’s death.”
His stomach turned, and he locked his arms around her. “Your actions didn’t result in someone’s death. Scott’s actions did.” He leaned away to tip her chin up to him, meeting her despondent stare. “People make their choices. You made yours. Good things will come from that. Scott made his. His weren’t good choices; nothing good can come from that.”
Her eyes searched his. “You think Scott deserved this fate?”
“Yes.”
She held his stare for a beat. “No one deserves death.”
“But death happens regardless,” he countered. “It’s coming for all of us.” Rhys knew that lesson. He’d seen death rip apart Katherine until all the good in her was gone, replaced by anger that her life was cut short. So many dreams unmet. So many needs and wants unfulfilled. He brushed Zoey’s hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear. “You can let this consume you, or you can realize that none of this is in your control. Not what Scott and Jake did to you. Not their responses to it.” He had never crossed the line he was about to cross, but he crossed it easily now. “I’d like to show you something. Will you come somewhere with me?”
Her eyes searched his. He swore she nearly said, “I’ll go anywhere with you.” Instead, she said, “Okay, yeah.”
They wasted no time getting in his car, and they stayed silent on the long drive back into Manhattan, through morning traffic. When he pulled into the cemetery, he caught the moment when Zoey went statue-still. He drove up the hill and around the slight corner before he pulled over beside Katherine’s grave then got out. Zoey followed him, stopping next to him, as he stared down at her gravestone.
He hoped what he said next would have an impact. Helped even a little. “I loved Katherine. Loved her more than I thought I could love anyone. She was everything I wanted in a woman. She was caring, fun, and had such a zest for life.” His throat tightened, but he breathed deeply again, pushing back the emotion to get through this. “Until her cancer diagnosis.” Zoey’s warm fingers tangled with his, her other hand wrapping around his forearm, as he continued, “I never would have believed what happened after that. The way Katherine changed.”
“Changed, how?” Zoey asked gently.
Rhys kept his focus on the tombstone. It had a slight purple tone, Katherine’s favorite color. “You always see inspirational stories about cancer. The way a person fights so bravely for their life. Katherine tried to fight for a while, but the cancer was aggressive. Chemo couldn’t even touch it. She got so sick.”
“I’m so sorry, Rhys,” Zoey said, tears in her voice.
He couldn’t look her way, couldn’t get through this if he did. “The plan had been to do surgery once the tumors shrunk, but the chemo wasn’t shrinking the tumors. They were getting bigger.” His throat tightened. His breathing became hard. He shut his eyes, relieving the look of rage that had crossed Katherine’s face. “The day the doctor told Katherine there was nothing they could do for her, she changed. The light in her went out.”
“She gave up?”
Rhys gave Zoey a quick look, finding warm compassion staring back at him. “Not only gave up, but anger stole the Katherine I knew and loved. She couldn’t see the good in anything. She lived for another two months, and she became a shell of the woman she was. She wouldn’t come outside. She wouldn’t talk to any of her friends. She sat in a dark room and stayed there.”
Zoey squeezed his fingers. “That must have been hard to watch.”
Rhys nodded, exhaled deeply, and looked at the tombstone. “I couldn’t reach her. I couldn’t help her. I could do nothing to save her. But worst of all, I couldn’t find my way back to her. When she died, she screamed in a way that will forever haunt me. There was no peace, no love, only rage.” He glanced sideways at Zoey. “I know what you’ve gone through is horrible. Inconceivable. But don’t do what Katherine did. Don’t let something consume you until all that you are, all that makes you, you, is gone. Promise me that.”
He wasn’t sure what showed on his face, but she quickly threw her arms around him, holding him tight. “I promise, Rhys,” she whispered. “I promise.”
“You’ll