Letting out a breath, I pulled her into me, placing my head in the crook of her neck. She ran her soft hands through my locks as I took a lungful of her sweet scent. She didn’t know what she had said. She didn’t know what favor she had done to me by saying those words. The fear of her leaving me was lesser in my heart now. My muscles relaxed as the pain in my chest slowly dissipated.

“You won’t leave me,” I whispered, more to myself than to her. I needed to hear it out loud.

Her hug tightened. “Never.”

I could feel the storm inside me calming. She won’t leave me. My Rosebud will always be with me, in my arms.

I breathed her in again, desperately held her against me tightly. And she didn’t complain.

“Stop punishing yourself for the accident that happened years ago, baby,” she murmured, rubbing my back soothingly. “I know what happened was unfortunate, but stop blaming yourself for that. I know you didn’t want to tell me about your past because you thought I’d hate you. Because you thought you were a murderer, you were guilty. But you’re not. You were just trying to snatch that gun from him so he couldn’t hurt your mom. But he didn’t let you. He was in a trance of anger and hatred. If you hadn’t stepped between him and your mom, he would’ve killed her.”

My jaw clenched at the possibility.

“It was his insistence not to leave the gun. So how was that your fault?”

“I know what I did, I did it for Mom. But that memory, Rosebud, it doesn’t leave me alone. His blood on my hands, the way his lifeless eyes stared at me after…” I clenched my fists as recollection of that night flashed over my eyes. “The thought that maybe if I handled things differently, maybe if I could do something else other than fighting him, he would be alive, our wrestling wouldn’t cause the trigger to go off. I wouldn’t have to take the burden of his death on my shoulders for years.”

“Then don’t.” Pulling away slightly, she cupped my cheek. “You don’t need to take the burden, Ace. You couldn’t have done anything else at that moment. No one could do anything at that moment. You did what you felt right. Tell me one thing.” She made me look at her turquoise eyes. “Would you do it again? Would you fight him again to save your mom if you could go back in your past?”

“Yes,” I replied, without hesitating.