Page 213 of Collide
I watch him carefully. “What’s going on with you? You don’t normally…act like this.”
His eyes are in agony. “Can we go to your room? Just to talk—privately.”
I nod, then turn, leading him down the hall and quietly closing the door behind us.
He stays silent for a long moment, staring out the window like he can avoid it. Finally, he says, “Madison emailed me this morning.”
“What?”
He turns back to me, and all that anger from before is gone, replaced by something raw and broken.
“The baby.It’s mine.”
The air rushes out of me like I’ve been punched.
“Oh.”
“I got the DNA results in my inbox.” His voice is hollow. “She wanted me to know. Like it was some…victory. I don’t know what to do,” Alex admits, his voice cracking in a way I’ve never heard before. “I’m going to be a father, and I don’t want this.” He breaks off, dragging his hands over his face. “Not like this, not with her.Fuckingbitch.”
My chest aches for him.
He looks at me then, his whole body trembling under the weight of it. “Elena, I don’t want her. I never wanted her. You know that, right?”
I feel my throat tighten painfully.
“I…” He stops again, swallowing hard. “I seehimwith you. And I feel like I’m already losing you. And now this…I feel like everything’s falling apart.”
His eyes are glassy, and for a moment, all the sharp edges of him—the arrogance, the recklessness—are stripped away.
It’s just Alex.
Vulnerable. Hurting.
Before I can stop myself, I move toward him, reaching out to touch his arm gently. “Hey, you’re not losing me. I’m right here.”
His hand comes up to cover mine, holding on like it’s the only thing keeping him tethered to the ground.
“I don’t know what to do,” he whispers again. And this time, it’s not about Madison.
It’s about us.
I bite my lip, my heart thudding painfully against my ribs. “I don’t know either.”
We stand there, suspended in that fragile space between what we are and what we might never be again.
“Hey, if we burn,” I say softly, meeting his eyes.
He gives me a small, broken smile. “We burn together.”
Our promise. Our curse.
We cling to each other as if we can hold back the tidal wave bearing down on us.
But even as I hold his hand tighter, my heart twists painfully, because somewhere deep inside, I know nothing about this will ever be simple.
Because now, I finally understand what Carole meant—sometimes loving the wrong person doesn’t just hurt.
It consumes you.
