Building Her Throne Burying My Heart (Claire) novel Chapter 43

I lost track of how long I knelt there. The rain kept coming and going, soaking me through every time I started to dry off. My clothes clung to my skin, cold settling deep into my bones until I couldn’t remember what warmth felt like. The pain in my body and the exhaustion in my head mixed together until everything faded to black. I just crumpled.

The cold had left me numb, so when I fell, I couldn’t even catch myself. My forehead crashed straight onto the stone steps. It felt like a blade cutting through me and the shock of it snapped me back to reality. I scrambled up, dazed, and reached for my face. My fingers came away sticky and red. Blood was already trickling down my face and pooling on the steps.

I’d split my head open. I fumbled in my pocket and grabbed a handkerchief, pressing it hard against the wound. I didn’t dare let go. Rainwater mixed with the blood, sliding down my wrist and splattering onto the ground in fat, crimson drops.

The pain, the cold, the exhaustion—they all pressed in at once, smothering me. I could barely keep my eyes open. Time slipped past in a blur. At some point, the sky started to lighten and the bleeding finally stopped. I woke with a start to the sound of voices nearby. People had come to the cemetery. They looked at me and whispered to each other but kept their distance. Eventually, a staff member came over and tried to get me to leave, but I shook my head.

I just needed to hold on a little longer. I could do this. Darleen could still be saved. Maybe Claire’s pain would get a little lighter, even if just a little.

As the day wore on, the sun rose high and the air grew hot. My clothes finally dried out, and a tree behind the grave gave me a little shade from the midday sun. Still, I was barely holding myself up, swaying where I knelt. My mind was foggy. Everything hurt, but at the same time, it felt like nothing hurt anymore. I couldn’t even tell if I was awake or dreaming.

“Claire, what about Lambert? He’s out there in the rain by himself.”

Claire stared out the window at the downpour. The rain was just as heavy as it had been the night I disappeared. That night, her father had been rushed into the ICU. She got my cold, final message. The debt collectors wouldn’t stop calling. She raced to the hospital, soaking wet, and waited outside his room all night and all day, alone.

No one ever knew what she went through that night, or how she made it through. She just wished I could have been there, wished she’d had someone to lean on, even if we didn’t say a word. She just wanted to open the door and hear good news. She wanted all of it to be nothing but a bad dream.