Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 124135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 621(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124135 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 621(@200wpm)___ 497(@250wpm)___ 414(@300wpm)
I fell asleep like that, waking in his arms too. And I decided it was how I wanted to say goodbye, how I wanted it to be when the day finally came.
Because it was perfect.
He was perfect.
Like this, life was perfect.
And it was how heaven would finally greet me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Cromwell
I walked down the corridor, each step heavier than the one before. And with every breath I took, the more my heart shattered apart. I saw the door closed and heard the low murmur of voices beyond it.
The call had come twenty minutes ago. I had left the hospital to grab a shower. The doctor had been coming to see her, so I’d said I’d be back soon.
The call told me that the moment I’d been dreading had arrived.
“Son…” Mr. Farraday had said on the other end of the phone. “The doctor has just been in… It’s time.”
I’d known it was soon. Bonnie was weaker than I’d ever seen anyone in my life. The color had disappeared from her face, but for her deep-purple lips.
I knew I was losing her…but I just couldn’t bring myself to let go.
My hair was wet and I had a lump in my throat that wouldn’t go. My feet led me to the room, but I didn’t want to arrive. Because if I arrived, it meant this was the end. And I refused to believe it was the end.
My hand hovered over the doorknob. My fingers shook as the knob turned. The room was quiet as I entered, Mr. and Mrs. Farraday sitting beside Bonnie, her hands in theirs. She was asleep, her pretty face perfect in slumber. I swallowed, my vision blurring with tears as I stared at her.
I couldn’t picture her gone.
I didn’t know what my life looked like without her, now that she was in it.
I couldn’t… I couldn’t…
Mrs. Farraday held out her hand. I wasn’t sure if my legs would move, but they did. I slipped my hand in hers. She didn’t say anything. Tears streamed down her face as her daughter slept peacefully.
As her daughter lay dying.
As the love of my life slipped further from my grasp.
She already looked like an angel.
Mr. Farraday was on his cell. He shook his head, worry etched across his features. “He’s not answering. I can’t get hold of him.”
“Easton?” I asked.
“I told him to come back immediately. He said he was on his way. But he hasn’t come and I can’t get through to him.” Mr. Farraday ran his hand over his face, panic and stress evident in his eyes. “He went home for a shower. I should have gone with him. I—”
“I’ll go find him,” I offered. Then I looked back at Bonnie. “Is there enough time?” I rasped.
Mrs. Farraday’s hand clasped mine tighter. “There’s time.”
I ran to my truck. I tried Easton’s mobile, but it kept ringing out. I rushed to their house, but he was nowhere to be seen. I jumped back in my truck and flew to the campus. He wasn’t in our dorm room, and I tore across the campus, checking the quad, the library, the cafeteria. I couldn’t find him anywhere.
“Cromwell!” Matt’s voice stopped me in my tracks.
“Have you seen Easton?” I asked before he’d even had a chance to say anything else.
He shook his head. His eyes were downcast. “How’s Bonnie? Is she…?” Sara and Kacey came up behind him. Bryce brought up the rear. I pushed my hand through my hair. “I need to find Easton,” I said, not knowing where the hell else to look for him, and then…
I turned and ran when one last place came to my head. I made it to the hidden spot beside the lake in less than five minutes. But as I pulled up, my stomach fell to the ground. It was like I was seeing it from outside my body as I jumped from my truck and followed the flashing blue lights through the trees. I ran and ran, my breath echoing in my ears. My feet faltered when I passed Easton’s truck, and when I rounded the corner, only for a policewoman to stop me dead, I saw paramedics wheeling a gurney into an ambulance. My pulse thundered so fast in my head that I struggled to make sense of what was happening. And then I saw the rope dangling from the tree…
“No.” Dread washed over me as the ambulance pulled away. “NO!” I screamed and ran back to my truck. Fear like nothing I’d ever known thrashed in my blood. I gripped the steering wheel, my knuckles turning white as I got stopped at every friggin’ red light along the way.
I burst through the doors of the hospital and ran and ran until I got to Bonnie’s room…only to see a police officer talking to Mr. and Mrs. Farraday outside. My heart was in my mouth as I waited, a statue on the ground, for what would happen next.