Page 112 of Whispers in the Dark
“You’ll let me go,” I echo, disbelief and pain bleeding into my voice. “Just like that.” My breath shudders as I step back, distance opening between us. Something hot and volatile ignites in my chest. Anger. Hurt. Fear. I turn sharply, my heels clicking against the floor as I start toward the door. I need to leave. I need air. I need space before I—
“Stop!”
My eyes find his…
His knees drop to the grass…
My arms slip around him…
His heart beats as fast as mine…
I’m done holding on to this secret.
My pulse roars in my ears as I spin back around, crossing the room in seconds, stopping a few feet away from him with the fire roaring between us. “I saw the panic in your eyes tonight when the woman believed she felt our secret between us. The one I’ve never shared with a single soul. But it’s time you know the truth about that day.” I take a steady breath, blinking back tears. “Seven and a half years ago,” I say, my voice rising, trembling with everything I’ve buried for too long, “you saved my life.”
The words echo, sharp and undeniable.
His head snaps up, confusion flooding his expression, his eyes searching my face like I’ve just rewritten his memory of that day.
I draw in a shaky breath. “You think it was me who saved you, but you have it wrong, Mauro.”
Maybe if I had told him the truth then, he wouldn’t be standing here now, appearing so defeated.
I swipe angrily at my cheeks, refusing to let the tears win. “I was sitting on that cliff, wondering why I was here. I was drowning in things I didn’t know how to say out loud. And there was no one I could lean on. I had never felt so…alone.”
I had just found out about my father. Early-onset dementia is what the doctors referred to it as, leaving him with possibly fourto ten years of life left. It’s why he announced his retirement, wanting to keep the news between only him and me. Too proud to let others know. He asked me to promise to keep this a secret between us, and to this day I have. Even now, when it’s begging to be released to the man standing before me.
But at seventeen years old, it felt like the world was sitting on my shoulders, waiting for me to break from the pressure. Because overnight, the roles were reversed and I was no longer a child, but an adult. One who was now responsible for her father, who sometimes had a hard time remembering… Remembering who his own daughter was.
“That day, I just wanted something beautiful. One moment where the world didn’t feel so heavy.” My throat tightens. “So I brought a blanket. My favorite book. I leaned against that old tree and told myself I’d sit there until the sun set.” My fingers tremble as I lace them together. “I wanted to remember what it felt like to breathe.” I roll in my bottom lip. “I’m not… I’m not sure I was actually going to go through with it. Still, the thought hung heavy in the back of my mind. I was so desperate and scared. Not sure what to do. I was at my lowest,” I admit shamefully. “But then… Then you came. You never saw me as you ran toward the edge of that cliff like nothing else existed. Like the rest of the world had faded away.” My voice breaks. “And I knew.” I swallow, blinking hard. “I knew what you were about to do. Because it was the same reason why I was there.”
I lift my gaze to him. His eyes are wide now, stunned, his lips parted like he’s forgotten how to breathe.
“The wordstopleft my mouth before I even realized I was speaking. And when you froze so close to the edge, I felt this rush of relief.” I wrap my arms around myself, looking off to the side. “Then you dropped to your knees, like the weight you were carrying finally became too much. The pain in your eyes…” My voice falters as I see his eyes fill with tears. “Nothing Icould have said would’ve been enough. I couldn’t speak because words didn’t seem right in that moment. They didn’t seem fair, not when they were taken from you. So I hugged you. And you hugged me back, holding me against your body as if I were the only thing keeping you from falling off that edge. But the truth is…” I wipe at my tears. “You were keeping me from falling.”
Mauro swallows the distance between us, not stopping until he has me in his arms. I collapse into his chest, burying my face against him as everything I’ve been holding back finally breaks free. My tears soak into his shirt, but he doesn’t care one bit as his grip tightens, his hands firm against my back, like he’s afraid I might run out the front door and never look back.
“I don’t see a monster when I look at you,” I whisper. “I see the man who saved me. One, I’m so in love with, it physically hurts, because I know this will all be over soon.”
His muscles stiffen beneath my touch.
He pulls back to see my face, dropping his hands so he can use them, and asks,You love me?
I sniffle and glance away, my chest aching. “I do.” A small, broken laugh escapes me. “And I know I shouldn’t because this is only temporary.” I meet his eyes again. “But I can’t stop my heart from beating for you.” My voice softens. “My heart has only ever beat for you. I was just too scared to tell you.”
His palms cradle my cheeks, his forehead rolling against mine. He closes his eyes, taking in a lungful of air. “I…love…” His voice falters. He swallows hard, pain and longing twisting over his face. “I love you,” he whispers in the dark, his words wrapping around me, setting my heart ablaze.
His lips press to mine, telling me so much more than words ever could. Devouring me with an untamed passion before suddenly pulling back to look down at me.
He parts from me, striding toward the kitchen. My eyes stay on him as he grabs something off the fridge. When he returns, he holds a piece of paper before us.
“The rules,” I breathe, my chest expanding with each deep breath.
He steps closer to the fire and tears the paper down the middle, tossing the fragments into the flames. I watch as they quickly disintegrate into nothing.
Every rule vanishing up the chimney.
His dark eyes return to me, causing my body to thrum to life.
