Page 55 of Iced Up Love: Part Two
The words fall apart as I try to hold onto them.
“I need her...I need her back...”
“He’s overdosing,” Lucian says, already pulling his phone out. “And he’s crashing.”
“He’s diabetic too,” Elijah adds quickly. “That’s not just the pills.”
Lucian is already making the call.
“I need you here now,” he says, his voice controlled, precise. “Yes. Immediately.”
Everything around me feels too loud and too far away at the same time.
“I’m sorry,” I mumble. “I don’t know what to do. She’s gone...I don’t know how to help.”
“You’re not helping by doing this,” Elijah snaps.
“Give him a break,” Jackson fires back. “Not everyone handles this the way you do.”
“He’s killing himself!”
“And you’re out there beating people to death, don’t act like that’s better!”
“Enough.”
Christian’s voice cuts through both of them, sharp and final.
“Both of you, out. Now. Give me his phone.”
Movement.
Footsteps.
The room shifts.
Lucian stays.
He leans over me, one hand steady on my shoulder, grounding without force, his voice lower now but far more deliberate.
“You don’t get to check out,” he says.
Not angry. Not soft. Just certain.
I try to focus on him. It doesn’t hold.
“I don’t deserve to stay,” I mumble.
“That’s not your decision,” he replies. “That’s hers.”
The words land differently.
Not comfort. Not permission. Something else.
“You want her back,” he continues, his voice even, “you stay in this. You don’t get to disappear when it hurts.”
“I don’t know how,” I admit.
The words feel weak.
