As soon as the call disconnected, I felt tears well before I blinked rapidly and focused on Marshall, letting my thumb gently glide over his wrist. I didn’t know if it was wishfulthinking on my behalf or actual reality when I felt my fingers get firmly squeezed.
As my tears fell, I pressed his palm to my lips and kissed him, whispering, “I love you too, baby.”
When I thought I registered another firm squeeze, I heard Jackson say, “They know it’s a fake marriage, right?”
Rose hushed him. “Not for long.”
Friday
Chapter Nineteen
Marshall
“Mr.Porter?”
“Which one?”
My brain felt like it was glitching. Every so often, I’d be pulled out of the heavy darkness that had been dragging me down. Each time, I heard Daniel’s voice pierce through the emptiness.
Baby… please wake up.
Please don’t leave me.
He can’t be alone. I won’t let him be alone.
You can’t keep me from my husband.
I couldn’t feel anything except a pressure to my left hand. I didn’t know why, but it seemed to correspond to the strength of Daniel’s voice.
Nothing else was making much sense, though.
And so I drifted back into the blackness.
“I’ve been sent to assess you.”
Daniel needed to be assessed? Why? By who?
I felt my fingers twitch, then the pressure of them being squeezed.
The darkness took me again.
Pain.
So much pain.
Why did I suddenlyhurt?
“Sorry. It’s been a long day.”
“I could imagine.”
The pain increased tenfold until I felt like I was screaming, but I couldn’t hear my voice.
Why couldn’t I scream?
I needed toscream.
“… caught in the twister…”
