You and Me Forever (Oh Captain, My Captain 6)

My heart sighs as I lay on his chest. The sound of his rapid heartbeat is music to my ears and sends me into a deep sleep.

~ ~ ~

The sun is bright in the room, and for the first time since this all started, I wake up with a smile on my face. I roll, hoping that maybe Luca isn’t working out yet, but the bed is empty. The house is quiet. All the memories rush back to tell me that this isn’t the same. We’re not the same.

Luca isn’t here because he left.

He doesn’t want this baby and I’m not sure what more I can do to convince him. He thinks it’s all because of Valeria and he doesn’t have the ability to protect our child.

The tears fall again. How the hell have I cried so much? I curl up in his pillow, inhaling his scent as my body shakes with the loss of my soulmate.

Chapter Fourteen

Luca

“Save them, Luca,” Valeria says.

Snow is covering everything and I’m freezing. Valeria doesn’t seem affected by it, even though she’s standing barefoot on the ice.

“Save who?”

“Can’t you hear her?”

I huff in frustration. My teeth begin to chatter, so I wrap my arms around myself. “Hear who? Where are your shoes? Here.” I bend to remove my own to give them to her, but Valeria stops me.

“Luca, come on.” She smiles. Skates appear on her feet and mine as she begins to glide across the ice.

“We shouldn’t be here,” I tell her.

“You have to save them,” she tells me firmly. Before I can question her again, she turns to face me, holding out her hands. “Let’s do a figure eight, Luca.”

I take her hands and we skate around the ice silently. Faintly, I hear a woman’s voice. It sounds familiar, but I can’t make out who it might be.

“Luca, Luca, Luca, help me.”

I skid to a stop and Valeria raises an eyebrow at me. “Are you paying attention now, Luca? You can only hear her if you pay attention. If you don’t, she’ll die, too.”

“Who is she?”

Valeria shrugs. “I don’t know her. You do. Are you going to save them?”

Them? I thought it was only a girl.

“Luca, please, help me,” the voice comes again, louder this time. “I need you. Don’t leave me here alone. Help me!”

Valeria tugs on my hand. “Let’s skate some more.”

The voice pleads with me again. “I need to save her. I can’t leave her. We have to help her.” Although, I still don’t know who she is.

Valeria disappears and I hear a tapping sound coming from some place nearby. I skate toward where I thought it came from. The ice is clear and beneath it is Valeria and a pregnant Hadley. Valeria is calm, but Hadley is panicked.

“If you save me, you can save her,” Valeria says.

I drop to my knees before removing one of my skates. Maybe the blade can help me break it. I slice and slice at the ice. Hadley’s skin turns blueish. She’s screaming at me now.

“Help me! You have to save us! Luca, please.” Water pours into her mouth, her screams garbled.

My eyes flit to Valeria. Her hands are pressed to the ice, but she’s not freaking out.