Page 140 of Iced Up Love: Part Two

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Nothing I can do to change it.

Nothing I can fight.

Nothing I can force.

Nothing I can fix.

Nothing I can undo.

I have never been good at that kind of helplessness.

I don’t know how to exist in it.

Lucian and Evelyn are still in the room when I walk in.

They both look up immediately, their attention snapping to me, and Evelyn’s face softens in a way that makes somethingtwist in my chest, like my presence reassures her, like it means something is better now.

“Elijah—”

“Get out.”

The words leave me quietly, but there is nothing in them that can be mistaken, nothing that softens them or gives them space to be questioned.

She freezes.

“What—”

I don’t look at her.

I don’t have the capacity to explain, to soften, to make this something she can process gently.

I look at Lucian.

Just once.

And he understands.

He always does.

He nods, stepping forward, his hand coming to Evelyn’s arm in a way that is both calm and final.

“Come on,” he says, his voice low, steady. “Let’s give him a minute. We’ll get you some coffee.”

She hesitates, her gaze flicking back to Lia, to the stillness of her body, to the machines, to everything that doesn’t look like it should.

Then she lets him guide her out.

The door closes.

And then it’s just me and her.

I don’t move straight away.

I stand there, just inside the room, looking at her, trying to reconcile what I see now with what I saw hours ago, and the disconnect is enough to make something in my chest tighten.

She looks like she’s sleeping.

That’s a lie.

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