Chapter 32 #3
He didn’t try to stiffen his muscles and use his strength to keep his hand there. He just let her push him away. And that made her pause.
It no longer felt like he was forcing her to face what she didn’t want to. Not as much, at least.
Rayna didn’t let go of his wrist, but she eventually loosened her grip.
He cast her jaw in his hand again. “Did they marry?” he mumbled.
She folded her arm and hooked it over his, tucking his forearm against her chest, as a lump began forming in her throat. “No…she died less than six months after he proposed.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t really know,” she admitted. “No one’s ever told us the full story, and George and I gave up asking after a while.”
“George?”
She hummed. “Originally, there were two POTeMs in the lab. One to bring and take Studies, and the second to do research on time travel in general. My mum and both of George’s parents were the ones who conducted experiments and tests using the second one.
But one of the tests went wrong, and the machine released an explosion of energy.
My mum, George’s parents, and another historian at the lab were in the room when it happened. ”
Dominic breathed out her name.
“V came to pick me and George up from school that day. I remember he was deadly quiet and pale. We kept asking what was wrong, but he didn’t say anything until we got to the hospital.”
She struggled to get the next words out. “The four of them died. Two days later.”
In the sorrowful silence, she listened to the pounding drum of Dominic’s heart, trying so hard not to feel the burn of her own.
“My dad and Isha took me in after that,” she continued absently.
“And George’s grandparents—his mother’s parents—took him.
We ended up living really far from each other and the lab and Benedict.
And I hated it. Not Dad and Isha—they were amazing, and Sameer, my half-brother, was about a year old, so I wasn’t alone, but I felt like I was.
“I missed V. I missed the lab. I missed George, Benedict, Uncle Declan, and Aunt Win. I missed my home.”
Her voice cracked to her utter humiliation, forcing her to pause.
“I begged my dad and my grandparents on both sides to let me go back. I even rang V. And he came. Straight away. Dad and him argued a lot at first, understandably. I don’t think it was easy for my dad to accept I didn’t want to live with him. But eventually, he let V adopt me.”
“When George found out, he cried a lot. Tried to run away from his grandparents once too. So with Uncle Declan and Aunt Win’s help, V adopted him too.”
She pulled in a breath as deep as her constricted lungs would let her and exhaled shakily. “So, yeah. That’s how V ended up with us.”
For two long, slow minutes, neither Dominic nor Rayna moved or spoke. Even their breaths were near soundless. Only the hum of the AC prevented the room from being pin-drop silent.
So when the bedsheets rustled, her heart started. And when he pressed his mouth to her hair, she flinched.
“I am sorry, my love,” he whispered, his hot breath prickling over her scalp. “I know the agony of losing a beloved parent so soon and so unexpectedly. It is difficult to face, but you told me anyway. And for that, I’m immensely grateful.”
No. Too much. Get away. I don’t like this. Don’t wanna do this.
Bundles of knots were forming inside her. The light of the lamp was too bright. She felt too exposed. An organism under the scrutiny of a microscope. It was agitating. She needed space. She needed a barrier to hide behind. She—
Dominic slipped his arm from her grasp and reached behind him. Awkwardly bending without letting go of her with the other, he managed to flick the lamp off.
Darkness shrouded the room.
Rayna lay stiff and unblinking as he sank into his pillow and enclosed her in a squeezing hug. Then he sighed, his arms relaxing, and kissed her head. Once, twice, a third time.
“It is ever so tempting to offer you false comfort in the hope that words shall make it all better,” he said. “But they will not, so I shan’t offer any. Instead, allow me to hold you while you sleep. It is still not a permanent salve, but at least it may quieten your mind.”
She didn’t answer him. Couldn’t.
There was a thick paste gluing her mouth shut, and trying to pull her jaw apart made it ache. But she didn’t push him away either.
Rayna remained as stiff as a log as he rested his cheek against her hair. She listened to his softening breaths, counted his heartbeats, waiting for the panicked anger and humiliation to rise and send her flying out of the bed.
Instead, her lashes slipped shut, and she melted against him.
For once, sharing the most vulnerable part of herself didn’t make her feel weak or pathetic.
It made her feel understood. Comforted. Safe.
Her mind did go quiet, and she fell asleep in his arms. But her chest was filled with the fuzz of dandelions, floating endlessly under a blue sky.
Standing in the middle of it was Dominic, grinning at her so beautifully.
And she ran straight into his open arms, holding him like she never had to let him go.