Page 149 of The Ache That Stayed

Her lips pressed briefly to the corner of my mouth. Soft. Shaking.

“Don’t leave me.”

Maybe I should’ve stayed. Maybe I never should’ve walked away two years ago.

No.

Because then I would’ve never had this. Never had her. Not like this.

“I came back,” I whispered.

A tear slipped free, and I didn’t even feel it. It took more than I had left to get the words out, but I needed her to hear it. Needed her to believe it. To hold onto it—when I couldn’t anymore.

My hand stayed where it was, resting against her like it belonged there—like I did. Then it slipped. I didn’t feel it hit the ground. But her hand palmed my cheek.

“Santino—look at me—”

So I kept looking at her, as though I could take a piece of her with me if I just held on long enough.

The curve of her mouth, warmth of her skin. The way her eyes never stopped searching mine. I wanted to remember all of it.

I wanted—

“Just stay,” she said, frantically. “Stay with me… please…”

I tried.

The devil knows I tried.

But everything felt distant. Her voice. Her hands. The pressure in my chest. It was all still there. Just… further away.

Her hands tightened on me desperately, like she could still stop me from slipping through her fingers.

“I never got to tell you.” Her lips trembled. “You don’t get to—”

Her voice cracked completely. Somewhere in the distance, there was noise. Movement. Voices. Footsteps—fast, uneven, closing in.

She screamed then.

“HELP! SOMEBODY! PLEASE!”

My focus slipped, came back, then slipped again. But her face—stayed right there. Close. Blurry at the edges.

The noise around us grew louder. Closer. But it didn’t matter. None of it did.

Because she was still there.

Crying. Holding me.

And the last thing I saw—the only thing I held onto—

Was her.

And then everything disappeared.

CHAPTER 40

Marcello