Jayden’s heart nearly expleted out of his chest
He shot out of bed like a rocket, practically falling down the stairs as he be might break it.
across the street. His fist
hammered against the door so hard by thought
“ARIANNA!” he yelled, his voice cracking with desperate hope. “Arianna, is that you in there?
The door woung open, and instead of the face he’d been praying to see, some random guy in pajamas trood there looking seriously pisted off.
“Tude, what the hell? It’s like three in the morning! I just moved in here yesterday!”
The hope dard so fast Jayden thought he might throw up. A renter, Just some fucking renter
“Wait,” he said, pulling out his phone with shaking hands. “Ime much is your rent?
“What?”
“Your monthly rent. Whatever it is. I’ll pay you ten times that to leave right now.”
The guy’s eyes went wide. “Are you serious?”
“Dead serious”
Twenty minutes later, Jayden was standing alone on the porch holding the keys to Arianna’s house, watching the guy load his stuff into a U–Handke he’d won the lottery.
Jayden stared at the from door for what felt like hours. Part of him wanted to go inside–to see her room to touch things she’d touched, to breathe the same air she’d breathed. But he couldn’t do it. Not yet.
If she was still alive somewhere, if this was all just some horrible mistake, he didn’t want her coming home to find him going through her stuff like some kind of creep.
Back in his own house, Jayden managed maybe two hours of sleep before dawn broke and he was hack in his car, driving to Vermont General like his lide depended on it.
The hospital was a nightmare–flu season had everyone and their mother in the ER. It took him half the day just to track down Dr. Martinez, Arianna’s cardiologist.
The second Jayden mentioned her name, the doctor’s whole face changed.
“Arianna Carter,” Dr. Martinez said softly, settling back in his chair. “I haven’t heard that name in a long time. That little girl practically watched het grow up in this place.”
“Can you tell me what happened to her?” Jayden’s voice came out barely above a whisper.
Dr. Martinez studied him for a moment like he was trying to figure out how much to share. Finally, he sighed.
“She was one hell of a fighter, I’ll give her that. Stubborn as anything. I remember her last admission–she’d just come out of a massive cardiac event. We lost her for almost four minutes on the table before we got her back”
Jayden felt the blood drain from his fare.
“And you know what she did the very next day? Checked herself out against medical advice. Said she had some court thing to y counting un her. Her poor mother was in tears begging her to stay another week, but there was no talking her out of it.”
The room started spinning.
The trial. His father’s bucking trial.
hat people were
Jayden closed his eyes and suddenly he could see perfectly–Arianna standing at that witness stand, pale as a ghost, her voice steady even though, she’d literally just come back from the dead. How had he not seen 117 How had he been so blind?
almed in Im with Your Before That Cruel Summer Took Everyth
*Chapter 11
And afterward, when they’d talked outside the courthouse she’d never said a word. Never mentioned that she’d almost died for bir
“She loved someone very much.” Dr. Martinez said quietly, reading Jayden’s expression “Even at the end, she was more worried about everyone els than herself.
When Jayden finally stumbled out of the doctor’s office, he felt like he was drowning, Everything sounded muffled and far away
He found himself wandering the cardine wing, looking for her old room. When he found 247, he just stood there in the doorway staring at the empty bed
It was just a regular hospital room now–clean white sheets, boring artwork, that antiseptic smell that all hospitals had. But if he squinted, he could almost see her there. Small and breakable, hooked up to a dozen machines, fighting for every breath.
“Im sorry,” he whispered to the empty room, his voice cracking. “God, Arianna, I’m so fucking sorry. You deserved everything good in this world, and I gave you nothing but pain.”
He must have dozed off in the visitor’s chair because next thing he knew, a security guard was shaking him awake, asking if he was okay.
Outside, the city was buzzing with Triday night energy. People were heading out for drinks, couples walking hand in hand, groups of friends laughing about stupid shit. Everyone just loving their normal, happy lives.
Jayden felt like a ghost moving through it all.
He stopped in front of a bakery, staring at the fancy cakes in the window. Arianna had always been obsessed with sweets–she’d beg him to split those overpriced cupcakes from the place downtown, the ones with like five different kinds of frostingpiled on top.
Her doctors eventually had to han sugar completely because of her heart, but she’d still sneak candy sometimes and make him swear not to tell her
You’re gonna get me in so much trouble,” he’d always complained.
“Totally worth it,” she’d say with that grin that made his chest feel too small.
How could someone that alive past. not exist anymore?
He was turning to leave when something in the bakery window’s reflection caught his eye.
Across the street, walking away from him through the crowd, was a small figure with long dark hair.
His heart stopped
“ARIANNA
He didn’t thank Didn’t look just ran straight into traffic, dodging cars and ignoring the angry hooks, and grabbed her by the hand.
