I chewed my lip. “And the other options?”
“Next option is, we take your mother off life support, and then we leave the city. I’ll pay Dante off, and then some, and we’ll leave, we’ll get as far from here as we can. We’ll run away and bring your mother with us if we can, or we’ll find some way to make sure she’s taken care of if we can’t.”
I nodded, squeezing my eyes shut, a horrible pit in my stomach. “And the last option?”
“I leave alone,” he said softly. “I pay off Dante, take full responsibility, and then run. You stay here with your mother, and we hope he doesn’t take it out on you.”
I opened my eyes, staring at him. I could see the pain in his expression and I knew how hard it was for him to even suggest something like that. I didn’t want him to leave me, didn’t want to be apart from him for a second, even if he did murder a man in front of me—he saved my life, and he’ll keep saving my life, I knew it. I couldn’t leave him behind.
“Not that,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t want you to leave me.”
“I don’t want to leave you either, but it might be the best option for you and your mom. Without me around, the mafia might leave you alone, and your mother might have the best shot at staying on the machines, and maybe waking up one day.”
I bit back tears and squeezed my eyes shut. I felt dizzy and pulled away from him, staggering over toward the bed. I sat down hard and leaned forward, curling up into a ball, and it hit me all at once, the realization, the horrible truth: my mother was never going to wake up.
It wouldn’t happen. It’d always been a long shot but now that window was closing, and there was no way we’d ever open it again. I couldn’t keep going through this with the dumb, wild hope that she’d ever come back to me, couldn’t keep forcing Gavin to make bad decisions because I couldn’t leave my mother behind. It was time to accept what had happened.
She wasn’t going to wake up.
My mother died, or part of her died, and the part that was gone would never return.
I sobbed hard into my hands. I felt his arms, felt his comforting body against mine. I hated my father, hated Cosimo, and now both of those bastards were dead. I hated them both so much for taking everything away from me, my mother, my life, my world.
I wouldn’t let them have Gavin, either.
I calmed down enough to breathe after a few minutes of horrible, gut-wrenching sobs. I looked up at him and steadied myself before touching his face.
“We’ll take her off the machine,” I said.
He nodded once. “That’s what I’d do.”
“Maybe she’ll breathe. And then we can all leave together.”
“You’re making the right choice.”
I shook my head. “I’m making the only choice. I’m so sorry, Gavin. I’m so sorry I put you through this.”
“No,” he said, wiping my tears away, and kissed me. “I’m happy I got involved. I’m happy I stepped in when I did, because otherwise I wouldn’t have met you. I can’t let you walk away from me, Erica, not now, not after everything we’ve been through. You mean too much. You matter too much.”
I kissed him then, tasting him, needing that simple pleasure, that simple embrace. He returned the kiss and I spiraled into him for a moment, losing myself and refusing to come back, at least for a few seconds.
We slowly broke apart. “How do we do this?”
“I’ll text Fiona and she’ll prep your mom. Then we’ll stop by Dante’s place, pay him off, and head to the hospital.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” He kissed me one more time then stood. “We should get moving though. I have a feeling today’s going to be a tough day.”
“Give me a second.”
“Take your time.” He walked to the duffel and picked it up. “I’ll be in the hall talking to Fiona if you need me.” He disappeared out the door and left me alone in the room.
I stared up at the ceiling. I wanted to cry and scream again, but that was behind me. It was time to move on from childish reactions, to move on from childish things.
I had a job to do.
I got up, washed my face, fixed myself up, then joined Gavin in the hall. Together, we walked to the lobby, and went outside.* * *The bakery felt oppressive as we walked inside. It had the same chic hipster vibe as before, but somehow it felt like we stepped into a dungeon, walking to our doom. I stood close to Gavin and let my eyes roam the space: a guy with a bushy beard and a MacBook sat in the corner typing away, two young women in workout gear sipped coffees and laughed, and Dante sat in his customary spot with two of his goons, each of them reading newspapers.