Chapter 43
CADEN
Present
Rose stared at me, face flushed, eyes wide.
“The diamonds on your glasses,” Rose said. “You took those out of my earrings, didn’t you?”
I didn’t deny it. Shortly after I had talked her down the ledge, a security guard had roamed up to the roof.
Startled, Rose had bolted before I could get her name or return her earrings.
I had walked through the hospital suites a few times, but I never saw her again.
The earrings were the only thing she had left behind.
The only proof that I had made a connection. “I wanted a souvenir.”
She bristled. “Only a serial killer would say that. My mom was pissed that I lost them. She had just gotten them for me.”
“I believe I’ve done a good job of replacing them.” My gaze flicked to the giant blue diamonds in her ears.
She was quiet for a few moments.
Her eyes were glossy when she spoke again. “You do know that I am not her anymore. I’m a totally different person than the old Rose.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it does. She had an entirely different personality. You fell in love with the old Rose, not me.”
“You could be half monkey, and I’d still love you.”
She smiled. Perhaps she remembered the first day of classes when I compared my students to monkeys. Actually, I believe I had said the monkeys were superior.
She shook her head in disbelief. “What is it that you like about me?”
“I like the way you breathe.”
She huffed. “So, you don’t care about my personality. All I need to do to make you like me is breathe?”
“All you need to do to make me love you,” I corrected, “is breathe.”
She was stumped. “Why?”
“Because you exist as long as you’re still breathing. And I wouldn’t exist if you didn’t.”
“That’s such an insane reason to love someone.”
Insane? If only she could crack my head open and read the thoughts inside. I loved her with a ruthlessness that bordered on insanity. In ways she would never be able to fully understand.
I would have killed myself that day if I hadn’t saved her. My entire existence hung in the balance of her delicate hands. She was my only reason for existing.
Instead of telling her that, I gave her a version she could accept. “The first time I laughed was with you on that roof. I didn’t laugh again for ten years, until the night on the boat. So, yes, I fucking love you just for existing.”
After that, she didn’t ask any more questions.
Rose
I kept quiet as Caden wrapped his arms around my waist. There was a sudden peace in the water, the air, and between us. I leaned back, resting my head against his chest, feeling his heartbeat beneath my ear.
“Tell me you love me,” he breathed against my ear.
He didn’t ask if I loved him. He ordered me to say it. The thought made me half smile. “God help me, but I do love you.”
“You’re so romantic,” his voice was warm against my ear, trying to sound sarcastic at my reluctant admission.
Nonetheless, his arms tightened around me, and I could feel the tension leaving his body that I had finally admitted it.
“Say it again,” he ordered after a few short moments.
I laughed softly. I had a feeling he would make me repeat those three words throughout the night as if they were water after a lifetime of thirst.
This time, I turned in his arms and held his face between my hands.
My eyes shone with vulnerability as I let him see all of me.
“I love you. And just in case you were wondering, you’re the only person I have ever loved.
I didn’t know you were the boy on that roof.
That’s the person I gave my heart to, and I was never able to snap out of it again. ”
I didn’t wait to see his reaction. I turned around and nestled back into his arms to watch the water instead. It was a fitting sight considering how we started.
The future stretched before us like the ocean, an unmapped territory we’d navigate together. Whatever world Caden created for us, I’d walk into it willingly because it had become the compass to find the version of myself I never knew existed.
Ironic. It was only after I became his captive that I finally found my freedom.
Follow your favorite characters in Kai and Amelie’s story, Angels Are Falling .
It’s a dark Aladdin retelling and Book 1 of the Twisted Ever After Series.