Chapter Twenty-Four Cromwell

Chapter Twenty-Four

Cromwell

I walked down the corridor, each step heavier than the one before. And with every breath I took, the more my heart shattered apart. I saw the door closed and heard the low murmur of voices beyond it.

The call had come twenty minutes ago. I had left the hospital to grab a shower. The doctor had been coming to see her, so I’d said I’d be back soon.

The call told me that the moment I’d been dreading had arrived.

“Son…” Mr. Farraday had said on the other end of the phone. “The doctor has just been in… It’s time.”

I’d known it was soon. Bonnie was weaker than I’d ever seen anyone in my life. The color had disappeared from her face, but for her deep-purple lips.

I knew I was losing her…but I just couldn’t bring myself to let go.

My hair was wet and I had a lump in my throat that wouldn’t go. My feet led me to the room, but I didn’t want to arrive. Because if I arrived, it meant this was the end. And I refused to believe it was the end.

My hand hovered over the doorknob. My fingers shook as the knob turned. The room was quiet as I entered, Mr. and Mrs. Farraday sitting beside Bonnie, her hands in theirs. She was asleep, her pretty face perfect in slumber. I swallowed, my vision blurring with tears as I stared at her.

I couldn’t picture her gone.

I didn’t know what my life looked like without her, now that she was in it.

I couldn’t… I couldn’t…

Mrs. Farraday held out her hand. I wasn’t sure if my legs would move, but they did. I slipped my hand in hers. She didn’t say anything. Tears streamed down her face as her daughter slept peacefully.

As her daughter lay dying.

As the love of my life slipped further from my grasp.

She already looked like an angel.

Mr. Farraday was on his cell. He shook his head, worry etched across his features. “He’s not answering. I can’t get hold of him.”

“Easton?” I asked.

“I told him to come back immediately. He said he was on his way. But he hasn’t come and I can’t get through to him.” Mr. Farraday ran his hand over his face, panic and stress evident in his eyes. “He went home for a shower. I should have gone with him. I—”

“I’ll go find him,” I offered. Then I looked back at Bonnie. “Is there enough time?” I rasped.

Mrs. Farraday’s hand clasped mine tighter. “There’s time.”

I ran to my truck. I tried Easton’s mobile, but it kept ringing out. I rushed to their house, but he was nowhere to be seen. I jumped back in my truck and flew to the campus. He wasn’t in our dorm room, and I tore across the campus, checking the quad, the library, the cafeteria. I couldn’t find him anywhere.

“Cromwell!” Matt’s voice stopped me in my tracks.

“Have you seen Easton?” I asked before he’d even had a chance to say anything else.

He shook his head. His eyes were downcast. “How’s Bonnie? Is she…?” Sara and Kacey came up behind him. Bryce brought up the rear. I pushed my hand through my hair. “I need to find Easton,” I said, not knowing where the hell else to look for him, and then…

I turned and ran when one last place came to my head. I made it to the hidden spot beside the lake in less than five minutes. But as I pulled up, my stomach fell to the ground. It was like I was seeing it from outside my body as I jumped from my truck and followed the flashing blue lights through the trees. I ran and ran, my breath echoing in my ears. My feet faltered when I passed Easton’s truck, and when I rounded the corner, only for a policewoman to stop me dead, I saw paramedics wheeling a gurney into an ambulance. My pulse thundered so fast in my head that I struggled to make sense of what was happening. And then I saw the rope dangling from the tree…

“No.” Dread washed over me as the ambulance pulled away. “NO!” I screamed and ran back to my truck. Fear like nothing I’d ever known thrashed in my blood. I gripped the steering wheel, my knuckles turning white as I got stopped at every friggin’ red light along the way.

I burst through the doors of the hospital and ran and ran until I got to Bonnie’s room…only to see a police officer talking to Mr. and Mrs. Farraday outside. My heart was in my mouth as I waited, a statue on the ground, for what would happen next.

Mrs. Farraday’s hand flew to her mouth, and her knees gave out. Mr. Farraday shook his head, “No” slipping from his lips as he followed his wife to the floor. My body shook at what I was seeing, at what was sinking into my head.

“Easton…” I whispered, dread cutting deep. “No.” My head shook, and my stomach felt like it had been hit with a lead pole. Mr. and Mrs. Farraday were ushered to a private room. Mrs. Farraday looked at me as they passed by, excruciating grief in her eyes.

As if by a magnet, my eyes were pulled to the door of Bonnie’s room. She was alone. She needed me. I wiped my face and walked numbly to her door. She looked so small on the bed. Tears that I couldn’t help but shed spilled over my eyes and crashed to the floor. I moved to Bonnie’s bed and took hold of her hand. She stirred, her brown eyes opening and flickering to mine. “Cromwell,” she said, no voice to her words. “You’re here.”

“Yeah, baby.” I pressed a gentle kiss to her mouth. Her weak hand lifted to my cheek. She must have felt the wetness.

“Don’t…cry…” I leaned into her hand and kissed her palm. “Stay with me…”

“Always,” I replied and sat beside her on the bed. I pulled her close to me and held her in my arms. It wasn’t long before Mr. and Mrs. Farraday walked through the door. They were walking ghosts. I swallowed, and I couldn’t fight back the tears. Because in that second I knew.

He hadn’t made it.

A doctor followed behind. Bonnie opened her eyes as the doctor addressed her. “Bonnie, we have a heart.” Bonnie trembled in my arms as the doctor told her what was going to happen. But none of it registered as the truth hit me like a boulder.

Easton…it was Easton’s heart.

With one glance up at her parents, I saw the truth staring back at me. After that was a rush of activity. A team of doctors came in and started prepping Bonnie. When I could, I held her hand. Her eyes were swirling seas of confusion and fear. Her mum and dad moved to her and gripped her other hand.

“Easton?” I heard her ask, and my heart splintered apart into millions of pieces.

“He’s on his way,” her dad said, the lie so needed right now. We all knew Bonnie had to fight. She couldn’t know the truth.

“Need…him…” Bonnie whispered.

“He’ll be with you soon,” her mum told her, and I closed my eyes. Because he would be with her soon. More than she knew.

“Cromwell.” I opened my eyes. Mrs. Farraday was looking at me, her eyes haunted and broken. She moved aside to clear the path to Bonnie.

Bonnie held her hand out. I moved across the room and took it. Her fingers were so cold. Bonnie smiled at me, and it destroyed my soul. “A heart…” Her smile stretched as wide as it could, her purple lips showing the well of hope that was springing inside her.

“I know, baby,” I said, forcing my smile.

“I’ll survive,” she said, more determination in her slight whisper than any shout could boast. “For us…” I closed my eyes and dropped my head to her chest. I heard the labored beat of her heart and remembered the recording of Easton’s. It would soon beat in her chest. I raised my head and stared into her brown eyes. And I knew that that new heart would destroy her when she learned the truth.

The doctors came in. I cupped her face in my hands and kissed her lips one last time. “I love you, baby,” I whispered as she was wheeled away.

“I love you too” came her faint reply. Bonnie’s parents walked with her as far as they could go. When Bonnie had disappeared though the double doors, I watched, emotions ripping me in two as Bonnie’s parents fell apart for the son they’d just lost.

The son whose heart might just save their daughter’s life.

I dropped to the floor, the cold of the wall supporting my back. And I waited. I waited, with hope in my heart, for Bonnie to pull through. Then dread followed, because I wasn’t sure how she would ever get over this.

One twin died so one would survive.

My best friend, gone.

The girl who held my heart, fighting for her life.

And me, helpless to do anything to fix it.