Page 165 of Please Save Me

“She said I loved her like someone in her books. She compared me to someone who sacrificed themselves to save the one they loved. What does she need?” He looked around the truck cab like it’d yield answers I couldn’t. “It doesn’t matter if she needs money or organs; I’ll make it happen.”

It scared me a bit to know he wasn’t fully exaggerating.

“Seb, she’s gone.” Just saying those words felt like being stabbed in the chest. “Her body’s here, but she’snot.”

His eyes filled with tears. “You’re lying.”

He held my gaze, and I slowly shook my head. I’d said just about everything I could, and none of it worked. But something in the way I looked at him must’ve made it click because, after a moment, the light in Sebastian’s eyes completelyvanished. I tried to probe him to speak a little more, but he had completely withdrawn into himself, leaving me to wonder how well he’d actually do when we pulled the plug tonight.

Chapter 50

Sebastian

To put it lightly, pulling up to Hartwood General was always an experience. At first, our trips here were terrible, thanks to Mason’s condition. I’d accepted this was where I’d need to go to see the love of my life. The paparazzi were a harder pill to swallow.

The first time they swarmed us was when I finally got to go home. I was barely keeping myself upright on my crutches, but they didn’t care. They wanted to knoweverythingabout Mason. What she was like, if she was going to live, and if this all was a clever cover-up for plastic surgery.

Honestly, every one of them should consider themselves lucky that I’d quit my job shortly after the accident. If I hadn’t been for that, I would havekilledthem all. I’d call it collateral damage, and my superior would’ve swept it under the rug.

Thoughts of blood and gore flooded my brain as Sophia, Cameron, and I braved the cold of December and walked directly into the writhing mass of failed journalists. Cam pulled the muslin car seat cover over Rosie’s face, desperately trying to conceal her identity as the flashing of cameras and a cacophony of voices greeted us.

“Sebastian! How’s Mason?”

“Is that her baby?”

“How do you feel about the allegations that Mason is doing this for publicity?”

The questions were relentless, each more absurd than the last. Didn’t these people not care that we were grieving? That after today, Rosemary would no longer have her mother? I stopped to turn around and tell them all I couldn’t wait until they were all rotting in hell, but Sophia put her arm on my shoulder.

“Sebby, don’t mind them,” she pleaded, “They’renotimportant.”

I gritted my teeth, not wanting to admit she was right. That was until another voice spoke up from the masses.

“Sebastian! How does it feel knowing you’re the reason Mason Albright might be dead?”

My blood ran cold, and I froze. Sophia’s grip on me tightened, but that did little, considering I’d completely forgotten how to breathe. They were right. I killed Mason Albright.

Before I could even consider the appropriate way to react to such an accusation, Sophia spun on her heels and looked toward the crowd.

“Who thefucksaid that?” she shouted.

My eyes widened. Until now, I’d never heard Sophia cuss. I wasn’t even entirely sure she knew how to swear until now.

Even the paparazzi fell silent, all except for one balding man near the front. He wore a smug grin as he clutched his camera.

“I did.” He stepped forward. “And I’m not backing down. If it weren’t for him, Mason wouldn’t be dead.”

Sophia turned a shade of red I’d never seen, and for a moment, I swore I was going to have to stop her from hitting him. But she took a deep breath and squared her shoulders.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Sophia said, plastering on the world’s fakest smile. “Mason is in the hospital because of a terrible, unavoidable, tragic accident…. You do know what that word means, right?”

The man opened his lips to speak, but Sophia held a finger to his lips, bending over slightly so she could belevel with him.

“Shhh, no, thank you. You don’t get to talk.” She spoke down to the man like he was a toddler. “Spreading vile lies may pay your bills, but it’s not journalism, is it?”

The man’s smug expression wavered, and while it was clear Sophia wasn’t done talking to him, the cold was eating at me, and I wanted to spend as much time with Mason as possible before it was too late.

So, I hobbled away, leaving her to cut that mother fucker to size in the nicest way possible.

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