Fake Dating My Ex's Hockey Star Brother (Maya Scott) novel Chapter 229

Chapter 89

ALLISON’S POV

+25 Points

“Justin, can you follow my finger?” Dr. Nora holds up a pen and moves it slowly from side to side.

My heart is hammering so hard I’m convinced everyone in the room can hear it. Katy is pressed against my side, her grip on my arm borderline painful, and honestly I don’t even mind. Her anxiety is my anxiety right now, bleeding into each other until I can’t tell where mine ends and hers begins.

got back from the cabin barely an hour ago and found out Justin’s finally awake, and now we’re all

standing here trying to breathe normally while Dr. Nora runs through her checks. She needs to check his

motor activity, response time… the whole thing.

Still watching, Justin’s gaze tracks Dr. Nora’s hand, slowly, and imprecise, but there. She nods, and some

of the tightness in my chest loosens on a quiet exhale.

“Good. Can you squeeze my hand?” She lays her fingers open on the bed beside him.

“Please squeeze it,” Katy whispers, so soft it’s almost just for herself. I pull her closer, my arm around her

shoulder, and my own silent prayer running on a loop in the back of my mind.

For a second, nothing happens. Then Justin’s hand shifts and closes around hers.

“Thank God.” Braydon’s voice comes from somewhere behind me and Katy lets out a breath she’s probably been holding.

It’s a small thing. Anyone outside this room might even call it minor but we know what it means. We know

that Justin can hear her, that something in there is working, and that he’s still fighting. Big recoveries don’t happen overnight. I know that. So right now, watching his fingers curl around Dr. Nora’s hand, I’m choosing

to believe in the rest of it.

“One last thing.” Dr. Nora steps aside and points directly at me. “Do you know who’s standing here?”

My throat tightens instantly from this stupid, irrational panic that he won’t know me, that this is the part where everything falls apart like some cruel final-episode plot twist where someone wakes up from a coma and forgets everything. I know that’s ridiculous. I know real life doesn’t work like that. But my brain. is running about fifteen catastrophic scenarios at once and I can’t shut any of them off.

Justin’s gaze finds me.

It takes a few seconds, long enough that my heart almost stops and then something shifts in his eyes. It happens slowly like a light coming back on in a room that’s been dark for too long and I can tell he recognizes me.

I blink and tears spill over before I even feel them coming. Katy pulls me into her arms, already sobbing against my neck, and I let her until the warmth on my shoulder registers and I realize those are my tears, not hers. I pull back, half-laughing at myself, and wipe my face with the back of my hand.

1/3

Chapter 89

“Hey.” My voice comes out small. I clear my throat and try again. “Hey, you.”

+25 Points

He doesn’t speak. I know he can’t yet, and maybe not for a while but his hand shifts slightly in mine and I

decide that counts.

“You don’t have to say anything.” I shake my head quickly, like I’m reassuring both of us.

His eyes stay on mine.

I open my mouth to continue, then close it. I had something I wanted to say, some version of it rehearsed

in the back of my mind the whole time I waited for him to open his eyes but sitting here now with his hand

in mine, all of it just… dissolves.

“I don’t even know where to start.” A tearful laugh slips out. “I had this whole thing planned in my head and

now I’m just-” I gesture vaguely at my own face, at the tears I’ve completely given up on stopping. “This.”

I look down at our hands.

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