49
SELENA
I was in Lucien's room. Holding his hand. Praying. His chest rose and fell with the machine. Steady. But for how long? I kissed his knuckles. Whispered the same words over and over.
"Please. Please. Please."
The door burst open. A doctor. Out of breath. Eyes wide.
"Mrs. Thorne. We have a match. A heart."
I froze. "What?"
"A donor. It's a perfect match. We need to move now."
I cried. Laughed. Kissed Lucien's forehead. "Did you hear that? You're going to live. You're going to LIVE."
They rushed me out to sign papers. Everything was happening so fast. Nurses running. Machines beeping. Voices overlapping. I was in a small office. Signing. Crying. Shaking. My hand could barely hold the pen.
Then I heard it. Two nurses in the hallway. Whispering.
"Did you hear? The man in the chapel..."
"The one with the tattoos? He killed himself."
My pen stopped.
"Left a note. Said to give his heart to the man in room 412."
"That's the CEO, isn't it?"
"Yeah. Lucien Thorne."
"So he killed himself for him?"
"For his wife, from what I heard."
The clipboard fell from my hands. I ran. Down the hall. Past nurses. Past families. Past everything.
The chapel doors were open. Gurney inside. Covered body.
I walked slowly. My legs didn't feel like mine. I reached the sheet. Pulled it back.
Tattoos. His tattoos. Kai's tattoos.
I traced them without thinking. The ones I used to know by heart. The dragon on his forearm. The script on his ribs. The cross on his chest.
Then I saw it.
A small star. Tucked near his collarbone. Somewhere I would have missed if he wasn't lying still. Somewhere he could hide it from the world but feel it against his skin every day.
A north star.
My star.
He got it after we broke up. Maybe after he married her. I don't know. But it was there. Fresh enough that the ink hadn't fully settled. Old enough that he'd had it for a while.
He never told me. He never showed me. But he carried me. Under his clothes. Against his heart.
I fell to my knees. The sound that came out of me wasn't human.
He finally chose me. Not with his life. With his death.