"You've been everything to me from the first moment I met you in those cursed tunnels, Luce. I survived only because you were with me, and later, because I knew I needed to keep my promise to you."

I stare at him, mouth agape.

"I thought about you, too," I confess shyly. "Every day, I'd wonder what you were doing. If you were happy. If you...were with someone," I whisper as I avert my gaze.

How many times have I hurt myself over the thought of him with someone else? With a girlfriend, or maybe a wife. I never regretted helping him escape and leaving me behind. But just imagining him with another woman has chipped at my heart time and time again.

"There's only ever been you, Luce," he states emphatically.

His eyes hold mine for a moment before he returns his attention to the road. But it's enough to convey everything with that one glance.

He loves me. He really loves me.

I'm still in a state of disbelief over the events of the last few hours, but this piece of information is not only the most precious one, but the most unexpected, too.

"I'll come with you, Nikki. After everything is done. After Noelle is back with her family, too. I'll come with you," I tell him.

"You'll never want for anything in this life. That I can promise you, Luce." He smiles as he brings my hand to his lips for a kiss. "I'll cherish you always."

"I know you will." I return his smile.

Happiness brims inside of me, but just as I lose myself in the moment, I find myself physically wrenched out of that scenario and thrust into another.

I blink repeatedly as panic suffuses my chest, my heart beating wildly as confusion simmers in my mind. The image of the car falls away, walls slowly rising up around me to construct a different environment. For one brief moment, I remember a name. Someone I was looking for. Someone I care about.

Ze...

Yet as soon as the sound of a door closing reverberates in my ear, my previous thoughts disappear from my mind. I don't question anything but the present and the fact that Nikki is in front of me.

"We can talk here. But quietly," I whisper to him. Noelle is sleeping in the other room, and I'm almost certain she'll give birth today.

"Of course." He nods, walking farther into the bathroom. I follow after him, surprised to see him pull a small case out of his pocket. As he opens it, it's to reveal pills nestled inside. He takes a couple, popping them into his mouth.

"What are those?" I point at the pills. "You said you were fine," I add, a hint of worry in my voice.

"It's for something else." He strains a smile.

I wait for him to explain, but he seems reluctant to do so.