Page 151 of Counting On You

“You said I was asleep. For how long?”

She doesn’t reply.

“Vicky,” I prompt.

“Ask me another time, when you’re better. It doesn’t matter anyway. All that’s important is that you are awake now.”

“How long?” I push up on my elbows, ignoring the nausea settling in the pit of my stomach.

“Don’t.” She pushes me back down onto the bed gently. I don’t try to fight her. I can’t. My body’s too weak for that.

“Tell me.”

Fear shimmers in her eyes.

“You know if you don’t tell me someone else will. I’d rather hear it from you,” I prompt.

She looks at me for a few moments, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “You’ve been gone for weeks.”

Her hand moves to her abdomen, and her gaze grows distant. The swelling of her tummy is prominent enough to notice. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before.

I smile bitterly, realizing she doesn’t mean weeks. Months have passed.

The world has moved on without me. Including her.

I can’t blame her.

A woman as attractive as Vicky, and with such a strong need for love, couldn’t possibly stay single. She needs someone by her side.

“Kade,” she whispers. “Please say something.”

I stroke her cheek gently. “I envy the guy you’re with. That’s all there is to say.”

I close my eyes before a wave of pain engulfs me—but this time it’s my heart that’s hurting.

A door’s thrown open and feet shuffle in. The bed moves before I’m being lifted up.

It all seems familiar.

I can hear Vicky’s voice, but it might just be a thought or a memory.

Blackness crashes over me again. I realize, it’s a different kind of darkness. My perception has been sharpened, my senses heightened, hovering in a state between dreams and reality. Slowly, fragments of memories come back.

Vicky watching me from a window. Me getting into the car. A vehicle crashing into us.

And pain. So much pain.

I had no intention of letting her go. But I realize that I might not have a choice now that she’s expecting another man’s child.

I just hope he’ll make her happy the way I know I would have.

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