Page 224 of Psycho

I shook my head.

It wouldn’t matter, because I’d already established that she wasn’t leaving my side.

She fucking couldn’t.

There would be no me without her.

I opened the door and stood by the threshold, watching her.

She was sitting in the middle of the huge king-size bed, hugging her legs to her chest.

She looked so small then, my heart hurt.

Slowly, she turned to me, her eyes red and tear-stained.

I waited for her to scream, to run away from me, for disgust to take over her face as she told me she didn’t love me anymore.

She didn’t do any of that.

We looked at each other for three long seconds, and then Lainey moved.

She jumped off the bed and rushed over to me, throwing herself into my arms. I caught her just in time, and she let out a heartbreaking sob, holding me tightly to her.

As for me, I was stuck frozen, looking down at the small girl in my arms, not understanding why she wasn’t running away from me but instead clinging onto me as if I were her lifeline.

“Micah,” she cried.

My name coming from her lips brought me back to life then.

I held on as tightly as she held onto me, my legs giving out from under me.

I fell to the floor with her on my lap, burying my face into her neck, and for the first time in…

Fuckingyears, I cried.

“I love you,” I said into her skin, kissing her there. “I love you. I fucking love you.”

It was so much more than that. I didn’t just fucking love her. Love had conditions, and with her, there were none.

But those three little words were all I could think of to tell her how I felt.

She nodded. “I love you, too.”

“You’re never leaving me,” I said, my voice thick.

“I’m never leaving you,” she agreed.

“Fuck.”

“You’re going to be mine forever?” she asked, as more tears fell from her eyes and seeped into the fabric of my shirt.

I tightened my arms around her. “There would be no other fucking way.”

“Forever.”

“Forever,” I repeated.

And fucking ever.

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