When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a hospital bed. My head and face throbbed, but a wave of relief washed over me when I saw who was by my side.
“At last, you’re awake!” Nicholas exclaimed, pressing a gentle kiss to the hand he was holding.
“What happened?” I asked, struggling to piece together the events that led me here.
“You fainted,” he explained, his worried eyes locked on mine. “The doctors said it was psychological exhaustion. They gave you some medication. You were completely worn out.”
I nodded, trying to process everything. Flashes of the recent events came back—kidnapping, the brutal blows from my father and Ronnie, the terrifying moment when I thought my father had been shot, the sight of him collapsing, bleeding…
“What happened to him?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper. Nicholas understood immediately.
He hesitated before responding, his voice heavy with sorrow.
“He didn’t make it, Noah… The bullet pierced his heart. He died before he got to the hospital.”
It was odd. Perhaps there was something inside me that had become numb, but I felt an overwhelming sense of relief, a weight that had burdened me for almost a decade finally lifted from my chest.
“It’s all over,” Nick said, rising from the chair beside my bed and leaning in close. “No one can hurt you anymore. I’m going to take care of you, Noah.”
Tears welled in my eyes.
“I never imagined things would end up like this. I never thought I’d be grateful for the way our lives intertwined. Just two months ago, everything you represented seemed like hell to me. And now…” I sat up on my bed, touching his face, and he wrapped his arms around my waist with care. “I love you, Nick. I love you so much.”
His lips met mine in a tender kiss, filled with the depth of the love we had cultivated. It was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of love, the kind that touches your soul and stays with you forever, the love that makes you realize how essential the other person is to your existence. It was the love we had searched for, sometimes resisted, but ultimately found, binding us together in a way that made life feel complete.
