Chapter 303
106
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My voice cracked. You have to wake so you can pay me back. You have to wake up so i can make you suffer for every single thing you did to me. They have to wake up because Lila-she called you Daddy, Julian. She wants to give you a hug. She thinks he hug will make you less sad, and yeye art aust
I couldn’t finish. Couldn’t force the words past the grief that was choking me,
“Please,” I whispered against his chest. “Please wake up. Please don’t leave us. Don’t leave me 1 can’t-1 can’t do this without you. I know I said i could. 1 know I told you I didn’t need you, but I was lying, okay? I was lying because I was scared and hurt and I didn’t want you to know that you still had the power to destroy me. But you do. You do, and if you die now, if you leave me here alone, I won’t survives it. I won’t-
The sobs came harder, shaking my entire body. I pressed my face harder against his chest, my hands clutching at him like I could softehow hold him to this world through sheer force of will.
‘I love you,” I choked out. “God help me, I love you. I’ve always loved you. Even when I hated you, even when I wanted to hurt you as much as you’d hurt me, I loved you. And I never got to tell you. Never got to-”
I don’t know how long I stayed like that. Minutes? Hours? Time had lost all meaning. There was only the cold tile beneath my knees, the warmth slowly leeching from Julian’s body, and the terrible, suffocating weight of everything I’d never said.
“You can’t go,” I whispered, my voice raw. “Not yet. Not when we finally-not when Lila needs you. Not when I-*
Need you.
The admission felt like swallowing glass.
“Please,” I said again. “Please, Julian. Please wake up. Please-”
Something moved beneath my hand.
I froze, my breath catching in my throat. For a moment, I thought I’d imagined it-grief playing tricks on my exhausted mind. But then I felt it again: the slightest twitch of fingers against my palm.
‘Julian?” My voice came out strangled, desperate. I lifted my head, staring at his face. Still way. Still slack. Still-
His hand moved again. Just a fraction of an inch, fingers curling slightly like he was trying to grab onto something.
Like he was trying to grab onto me.
“HELP!” The scream tore out of me, raw and primal. “SOMEBODY HELP! HE’S-HE MOVED! HIS HAND MOVED!”
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