Page 68 of A Wish for Us

I needed to get up. To take Bonnie with me and to fucking run from whatever this shit was. But we couldn’t run when the very thing we were trying to escape from, the thing that was dying, was the thing that still kept her alive.

“I’m sorry.” Bonnie put her hands on my face and kissed me. “I’m so sorry, Cromwell.”

“No,” I argued, head shaking. “Don’t.”

“I’m sorry,” she said again. “But I can’t do it to you.” She stood, leaning on her chair for support. My mind reeled when I thought of her lately. How slowly she would walk. The times she would stop and catch her breath, disguising her reason for stopping as something else. The dark circles underher eyes. The need for so much sleep. The camisole she didn’t want to take off last night. If she’d had surgeries before…it had covered her scars.

“I don’t want to go anywhere,” I said.

“Please, Cromwell. Please just leave it be.” Her hand was tight on the chair. “I have to fight. But if I lose…if that fight is over before I have a chance to try…” She shook her head. “I couldn’t do that to you. I couldn’t hurt you in that way.”

“Bonnie—”

The sound of footsteps came into the room, cutting me off. A woman with brown hair and Bonnie’s eyes walked into the room. Her eyes widened when she saw me. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you had company.”

“He was just leaving, Mama,” Bonnie said. Her voice was still thick with tears.

“Bonnie—”

She leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Thank you,” she said and sat back down on her seat. My mind was reeling.

“No,” I argued.

“Please,” she said, breaking into a cry. I reached forward, but a hand on my back stopped me. I turned to see her mum.

“Please, son,” she said, her accent just as strong as her daughter’s. I didn’t want to leave Bonnie. I didn’t want to go. But I didn’t want to see Bonnie cry. I stepped out into the corridor with her mum. I ran my hands through my hair in frustration. My head was a jumble. Bonnie…dying…heart failure…transplant…It wouldn’t sink in. It wouldn’t…

Her mum was watching me closely. Her eyes were shining too. “Give her a chance to get settled at home. Give her a chance to adjust. This is all hitting her hard.”

I stared at her, wondering how the hell she was holding it together. But then I saw her lip shake and realized she wasn’t. She’d just got good at hiding it.

“Please, son,” she said. “We just want to make this as stress-free for Bonnie as possible.” Her facade faltered. “We have to do whatever we can to help her keep up the fight.”

I stared at Bonnie’s door. Then I backed away from the door, towardoutside. My head was pounding, my mind trying to take it all in. This couldn’t be happening.

Not now that I had her.

Not after I’d let her in.

I burst through the door and into the cool air. My feet stopped dead and my eyes closed. I couldn’t get my head around what had just happened.

I opened my eyes, and my gaze fell on the quad. On the students laughing and joking, not a damn care in the world.

I wanted to scream.

I stared at the dorm and thought of Bonnie inside. I had to do something. My hands pushed through my hair. And like it did every time I thought of her, music played in my head. Notes danced, all to Bonnie’s pretty face.

I took off at a sprint.

I didn’t know what to do.

She wanted me to go…

…but I wasn’t sure that was something I could do.

Chapter Sixteen

Bonnie