Total pages in book: 215
Estimated words: 199344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 997(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 997(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
I nod, knowing Linc is right. Noah promised me, and he’s always been a man of his word, especially when it came to me. He’s going to stand by his promise, and when the time is right, he’ll dig himself out of the darkness and teach himself how to fly. And when he does, I’ll be right there soaring beside him.
I’ll be the sun in his sky, and every night when he’s looking up at the stars, watching as they twinkle against the night sky, he’ll know that’s me, shining just for him.
“It’s time to go, Zo,” Linc whispers, his gaze dancing over Hazel’s beautiful face with such immense fondness that it kills me they never got to have their chance.
“Okay,” I tell him, and this time, when he tugs my hand, I go with him, letting him guide me as we fade away into nothingness, ready for my next adventure.
61
Noah
Agony sears through my chest as Kelly takes Zoey’s wrist and presses her fingers against her pulse. A sad smile pulls at her lips. “She’s gone,” Kelly whispers into the room as Erica weeps over her daughter’s body, and Hazel sobs on the ground.
Kelly’s words ring in my ears.
She’s gone. Zoey is gone.
My bestest friend, my confidant, my whole fucking world.
My wife.
Gone. Just like that.
I can’t fucking breathe, and I clutch the rings tighter in my hand, vowing to never let them go as the tears pour from my eyes. I’ve never felt such despair, such excruciating, intense grief. It’s like that vise around my heart has finally pushed through my limits and crushed me from the inside out. I need to scream. I need to run.
I need to get out of here.
The pain is unbearable, and as I look down at Zoey’s lifeless body, the sobs heave from my chest. How am I supposed to do life without her? How am I ever supposed to be okay with this?
It hurts so fucking bad.
I try to suck in a breath, but it gets caught on the lump growing in my throat, and I gasp for air, feeling as though I’m choking on my own torturous grief. Her body is still warm in my arms, so frail and broken, but I hold her to me, not willing to let go, and with her like this, it’s so easy to pretend she’s just sleeping. But she’s not. She’s gone.
My Zoey is gone.
I’ve never felt an emptiness like this, and it quickly pulses through my veins like poison, filling every inch of me until there’s nothing left. As the agony burns me alive, I have no choice but to pull away from her, to lower her sweet body back to her mattress, and run.
Busting out of the house and into the street, storm clouds let loose over me, rain pouring down as I race past my car and run, my feet pounding against the hard pavement. I push myself to my limits, heaving sobs until it becomes too much, and I tumble to the ground, my knees slamming against the road. I catch myself on my hands, the rain drenching me. I throw my head back and scream, the sheer agony tearing right from my soul as thunder booms through the skies above as though it can feel the excruciating pain in my chest.
Why did she have to leave? Doesn’t she know how much I need her?
A car rolls to a stop in front of me, and I barely have the energy to look up, finding my mother’s Audi, and I’m distantly aware that I’m outside my family home.
My mom gets out of her car, holding her hand above her head as if to protect her from the rain. “Noah?” she calls, her voice sailing across the distance. “What on earth are you doing?”
I look up at her again, and as her eyes come to mine, reading the devastation in my gaze, she crumbles. “Oh no,” she breathes, and then she’s running, not stopping until she crashes into me, her arms flying around my shoulders and holding me to her.
I grip on to her with everything I have, barely able to keep myself up as Mom sags under my weight, but she refuses to let go. She holds me as the agony continues tearing through my chest, eating me alive. “Why did she have to go?” I cry into my mother’s shoulder. “I can’t . . . I can’t breathe without her. I need her, Mom. I love her.”
“I know,” she says, her hand roaming over my back, the same way she used to when I was just a kid. “I know you do.” Then as the storm rages on and the pain permanently settles into my chest, creating my new reality—a reality where I’m forced to live without her—I burn into ashes, not having a damn clue what will remain once the dust has finally settled.