Page 66 of His to Love
“I promise.” I nodded frantically. I’d promise her anything in that moment. If she asked me to marry Malik again, I might have agreed.
This was her dying wish for me. “I promise,” I said again, over and over.
But she never responded. She had already fallen asleep, pulled down by the drugs and disease.
I stayed there forever, too afraid to move out of fear that I would lose the feel of her arms around me one last time. Because neither of us had to say it. We both knew.
This was our goodbye.
Chapter 16
I was completely emotionally drained by the time I arrived back at the hotel for one of my last nights there. I couldn’t wait to get into my apartment.
A month in a hotel was way too long.
After finally being awoken by my father, who didn’t seem to understand why my mom and I were curled around each other, I fell into another sob fest, that time on Clarissa’s shoulder.
Later, I drove away, tears drying on my cheeks, and I couldn’t force myself to return to the hotel. Instead, I parked in the parking ramp and walked along the riverfront. The spring breeze did nothing to calm my turmoil or my heated skin.
I had no idea how far I walked. How long I was gone. I only briefly remembered sending a text message to Tyson before I left my parents’ house saying, “I need you,” before I slipped my phone back into my purse and forgot all about it.
I forgot about everything as I walked, everything except the memories of a woman who had always been strong. A woman who fell into a life she knew nothing about and embraced it as if she belonged. A woman who married a difficult man who somehow softened at her smile and her touch. She might not have baked. She might not have volunteered at my elementary school like so many other people’s parents, but there had never been a day when I doubted her love for me. I desired to be as strong as her, as graceful as her, as determined to be my own person as she was.
I used to think about her when I was in Colorado, on dark quiet nights when I was alone, and wonder how in the world she was so easily able to walk away from her comfortable and enjoyable life to something that had to make her constantly feel dark and dirty. I never understood how she couldn’t see my father for who he was.
But now I realized, she saw him clearly. She did then and she did now…and what she saw in my father, was what she wanted for me. Someone who loved me regardless of our vast differences, someone who would protect me.
Someone who would die to keep me safe.
I couldn’t help but wonder, as I strolled back to the Apollonio Hotel, my energy fading with every slow step, if I had found that with Tyson.
I wondered if I had found a man who loved me as much as I loved him.
“Blue.”
His voice calling my name made my head jerk up. Tyson stood up from a bench outside the hotel. His hands hung loosely at his sides and he was dressed in a well-tailored, all-black suit and dress shirt. He could have looked just like one of my father’s business associates if any of them ever managed to look concerned or worried. The line between his brows dug deeper as he took a hesitant step toward me.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, my throat and voice dry and scratchy. I had cried too many tears.
He cocked his head to the side. “You texted me. Said you needed me.”
I had done that. I blinked twice, as if having to force the memory to the forefront of my mind. But as soon as it hit, my shoulders sagged.
My chin trembled again and I nodded. “I did,” I said, as I began to cry again.
I didn’t take another step before Tyson was in front of me. He wrapped his arms tightly around me. “You okay?”
“No.” I shook my head, sniffing against the lapel of his suit. “I’m not.”
“Shh. Let’s get you to your room.” His firm grip on me, the softness in his voice…it was too much. My knees quivered and I collapsed into him, losing the remaining strength I had before I saw him.
“Shit,” he cursed and bent down. One of his hands went to my knees and then he hauled me to him, carrying me with one arm behind my back, the other beneath my legs. I burrowed into his chest, fisting his suit in my fingers. I didn’t say anything as he carried me through the hotel lobby, or when he adjusted his hold just enough to hit the button on the elevator for my floor.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered when the doors shut behind us.
“Nothing to be sorry about. I’m just glad you’re okay, I’ve been waiting here for hours.”
Hours. Had it been that long since I sent that text? I had no idea. Time passed by while I’d been lost on the riverfront but it didn’t matter.
