Page 148 of Blossoms of the Heart
Chapter 30
Phoebe
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Ijust managed to get back to Akito’s in one piece. I couldn’t stop myself from crying.
It was funny how I thought my world had ended after my accident.
My world hadn’t ended then. It was ending now.
Falling away from me.
I knew this would happen.
That’s kind of what happens when you’re with someone you love and not only shut them out, but shut them down.
Everything Tai said I deserved. All of it. Everything. He was right.
I treated him like he meant nothing to me.
By the time I got to Akito’s, I was completely distressed. I tried to keep as quiet as I could so as not to wake him. But he was already awake.
He was in the sitting room watching TV and eating popcorn. Since he looked so absorbed in the show he was watching, I thought I’d try to sneak past and go up the stairs.
“Phoebe, I may be old but I have perfect hearing,” he called out.
I stopped in my tracks and turned to see him staring right at me.
“Are you crying?” he observed.
Feeling like I desperately needed that fatherly comfort he always offered, I ran over to him, into his awaiting arms, and broke down.
“Dear Phoebe,” he said softly, stroking my head. “What’s wrong?”
I sat back on the arm chair and rested my hands on my knees. “Everything?”
“Is it Tai?” A glint of wonder flickered in his eyes.
I nodded.
“What is it, Phoebe?”
I didn’t even know if I could talk to him or what I’d say. “I really like him, but I think it’s best that we probably stop seeing each other, because this is really as far as we can go.” More tears ran down my cheek.
“What makes you think that?”
“Akito, I can’t give him false hope.”
“So if you’re worried about false hope, maybe you more thanlikehim?” His smile widened.
I looked at him and saw the understanding in his expression. He could see straight through me.
“I love him,” I confessed in a meek voice.
“Okay, now I’m with you.”
“I can’t have kids, Akito. I can’t be with Tai.”
