“It’s too late, Red. I fucking loved you, and you lied. If you can lie about something this big, what else could you keep from me? I don’t even know you. You are no better than her,” he spits out at me, before throwing my medical file across the room and stalking toward the door.

But all I heard was… he loved me? And that’s enough to give me the strength to push through my nerves and exhaustion to tell him what I need to. The truth.

“Dante! Please! I was scared to tell you. I was scared that you would treat me differently, that you wouldn’t want me once you knew!” I plead out to him, my hands trembling as I try and sit up. I reach for him, but he is too far away. He stops right near the door, but doesn't look at me.

“Nico is here. He will stand guard for you while you are here, and then you will be taken to our safehouse until those assholes are caught and it is safe for you to leave,” he says, his voice low. “After that, you will be on your own. I don’t want liars in my life. Leo doesn’t deserve any more of them either. Forget you know us, forget what you saw and heard, and forget what we had, because it all meant nothing.”

“Dante! No!” I shout to him, tears running down my cheeks, my heart feeling like the bullet went through it yesterday instead of my shoulder. I try to move, to go to him, but I am trapped onto the bed by a mess of cords and tubes. I feel like my life is ending; right here, right now. Like the minute he walks out the door, it is all over.

“Dante! Please! I love you!” I cry out for him, needing him now more than ever. Admitting my love for him, only to have him look away.

“Goodbye, Red.” He flings open the door so hard that it bangs against the wall, leaving a dent in the plaster, and I watch helplessly as his tall frame stalks out of the room. And out of my life.

32

Annie

It has been a week since Dante walked out of the hospital room, and I haven’t seen him since. I have been here alone, lost in my grief and memories of the past few months, wondering how it all went so wrong.