Chapter 27
The veins in Jayden’s neck stood out like cords as he doubled over, completely overwhelmed by a crushing wave of grief that felt like it was suffocating him from the inside out.
His eyes turned bloodshot, tears streaming down his face as some primal part of him desperately wanted to look back at that headstone, to see the photograph that had just shattered his entire reality.
But Arianna was pulling at his arm, her voice full of panic and concern. “Don’t look! Please, we need to get you out of here. Come on, let’s go home.”
Jayden’s whole body was shaking with the force of whatever was happening to him, but he managed to nod weakly and let her guide him away.
By the time she’d helped him into the passenger seat, the worst of the agony had started to subside. He sat there taking deep, shuddering breaths, trying to piece together what the hell had just happened.
“I’m sorry,” he said finally, his voice hoarse and broken. “I don’t know what that was. Did I scare you?”
Arianna’s hands were trembling on the steering wheel, but she shook her head. “I’m just worried about you. We’ll figure this out together.”
When they got home, rain was pounding against the windows in heavy sheets. Arianna settled onto the couch and gently guided Jayden’s head into her lap, her fingers working through his hair and massaging his temples with infinite tenderness.
The pain in his skull gradually faded under her touch, and exhaustion hit him like a freight train. Within minutes, he’d fallen into a deep, troubled sleep.
In his dream, he was back in high school, watching everything unfold like a horror movie he couldn’t turn off.
Arianna was surrounded by Harper and her crew, being pushed and shoved and called names he couldn’t bear to repeat. And there was his teenage self, standing off to the side like a fucking coward, doing absolutely nothing to help the girl he claimed to love.
Just watching. Always just watching her suffer.
Suddenly the bullies vanished, leaving only Arianna and dream–Jayden alone in the empty hallway.
The perspective shifted, and now he was seeing through his own eyes instead of watching from outside.
Arianna’s face went deathly pale, and she clutched at her chest before collapsing to her knees in obvious agony.
When she looked up at him, her eyes were full of such pain and betrayal that it felt like someone was ripping his heart out through his throat.
“I’m already dead!” she sobbed, her voice breaking with every word. “Why didn’t you save me? Why didn’t you help me when I needed you most?”
Jayden felt like someone was squeezing his heart in a vise. He tried to move, tried to reach for her, tried to explain or apologize, but his body wouldn’t respond.
Arianna’s expression hardened with pure hatred, tears streaming down her face as she glared at him with fury that made his blood turn to ice.
“I hate you, Jayden Hiddleston! I never want to see you again! Not in this life or the next!”
Jayden jolted awake with a strangled gasp.
His chest was heaving, tears of sheer panic streaming down his face as he struggled to remember where he was and what was real.
He looked around frantically. The couch was empty. The kitchen was empty.
No Arianna anywhere.
“Arianna!” he called out, his voice cracking with terror. “ARIANNA!”
He stumbled through the house like a man possessed, checking every room, every closet, every possible hiding place. She was gone, just like in the
nightmare.
His heart was hammering so hard he thought it might explode when he finally spotted a figure through the back window.
Arianna was in the garden, completely oblivious to his meltdown.
Jayden burst through the back door and practically tackled her, wrapping his arms around her so tightly he probably left bruises.
“Why didn’t you answer me?” he demanded, his voice muffled against her neck. “I was calling for you!”
Every terror, every doubt, every nightmare that had been clawing at his subconscious for weeks came pouring out in that moment–the fear that this was all fake, that she was going to disappear, that he was losing his fucking mind.
“Jayden, you’re hurting me,” Arianna said gently, and he immediately loosened his grip.
“God, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean-”
She pulled him closer, rubbing soothing circles on his back like she was calming a frightened child.
“I couldn’t hear you from out here,” she said softly. “The rain’s too loud. What happened? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Jayden tried to pull himself together, embarrassed by how completely he’d lost it. “Just a nightmare. A really, really bad one.”
He glanced around the garden, still trying to ground himself in reality. “What are you doing out here anyway?”
Arianna pointed to Orange, who was pouncing on fallen leaves with obvious delight. “This little escape artist slipped out when I wasn’t paying attention. I’ve been trying to coax him back inside.”
Jayden watched the kitten play, feeling his heartrate finally start to return to normal. But when he looked back at Arianna–really looked at her, at the engagement ring sparkling on her finger, at the way the porch light caught her hair–something desperate and urgent seized him.
He couldn’t wait anymore. He couldn’t take another day of this uncertainty, this constant fear that she might not be real.
“Arianna,” he said suddenly, his voice rough with emotion. “Let’s get married tomorrow.”
