Yet.

There’s always tomorrow.

But that wasn’t what she wanted to think about. Instead, she closed her eyes and remembered what it felt like to be held in the arms of someone who loved her.

“I want you to marry me, Zarya. I need you in my life. I know it sounds weird, but when I’m with you, I’m the man I always wanted to be. And when I’m not, it’s like I’m lost to someone else, and I don’t like him anymore. I can’t keep living the lie that was forced on me.”

Now she knew the lie.

And it broke her heart.

But tomorrow, no matter what it took or how hard it was, she was going to try and find that man he’d spoken about.

She’d found him once.

Now it was time to bring him home…

9

Darling came awake to the worst pain in his skull imaginable. His head felt like it weighed five hundred pounds and that his uncle had bounced it off the marble floor a few dozen times.

Damn, it hurt.

He pressed his hand to his forehead and went cold as he felt skin on skin. What the hell? He hadn’t removed his gloves since Syn had released him from the hospital.

Panic tore through him. How could he be in his bed without his mask and gloves?

What happened to me? He couldn’t remember anything from the night before.

Who’d undressed him?

“It’s all right, Darling.” Maris came out of the shadows to stand next to him. “You passed out last night. I carried you in here and put you to bed.”

Thank the gods for that.

But his relief was short lived. Frowning, which made his head throb even worse, Darling did his best to recall something from last night.

Everything was a fog. It was like trying to chase down a phantom wind.

How flagged had he gotten?

Yeah, okay so he’d started drinking on a stomach filled with nothing but painkillers around lunch, and hadn’t stopped until he must have passed out. Still…

“I don’t remember anything.”

Maris snorted. “I believe it. You were pretty wasted. I haven’t seen you like that in a very long time.”

“How long was I out?”

Maris turned the clock to face him.

Darling cursed as he noted the time. “It’s the middle of the afternoon?”

“You haven’t slept in days, probably weeks,” Maris said simply. “You were exhausted.”

He’d lived his whole life exhausted. Sleep had always been a stranger to him. Peaceful sleep even more so.

Squinting against the faint light in the room that pierced his brain, he grimaced at Maris. “What about you? You look like shit, buddy.”

“You keep sweet talking a girl like that and you’re liable to get lucky.”

Darling didn’t comment on that. “You haven’t slept, have you?”

“No. I kept watch for you while you slept.”