CHAPTER 36: TILL THE END (⁠・⁠∀⁠・⁠)

Leo sat on the edge of the bed, his own hands shaking now. "You’re coughing up blood, Sarah. That’s not something you just hide."

Tears filled her eyes again, spilling down her bright red cheeks. "I was scared."

A different sensation settled in his gut, a feeling so intense it almost choked him...

He clenched his jaw and grabbed his phone off the table. He couldn’t stay still, not after what she’d just told him. His thumb hovered for a second over the screen before he found the contact he was looking for. Her parents.

(It rang once. Twice. Then a click... someone picked it up.)

"Hello?" her mother answered, her voice was familiar to Sarah.

But Leo didn’t wait for any prep talk... "You knew, didn’t you?"

There was a pause on the other end, a silence of confusion. "Leo, what are you talking about? It’s late."

"Listen ma’am, don’t play dumb with me," he snapped, his voice was loud and filled with anger. "You knew she was sick. You knew this whole time, and you didn’t tell me."

Another pause, but this time it was longer...

"She’s sitting here barely able to move, bleeding from the mouth, and I’m just finding out now that she has a heart condition?" His voice broke composure slightly. "Do you know what that feels like?"

"Leo... we didn’t want to worry you. We thought..."

"You thought what?" he interrupted, a harsh, humorless laugh escaping his lips. "That it would just magically go away? That I didn’t deserve to know that my girlfriend’s life was at risk? Was that the plan?"

He turned to glance at Sarah. She sat quietly on the bed, her arms wrapped around herself, her eyes lowered to the floor. She looked so pitiful...

"I love her," he said, his voice dropping to an emotional murmur... "She means everything to me. You should have told me."

There was a deep, shaky breath on the other end of the line. "I’m sorry, Leo," her mother said softly, her own voice thick with an emotion he couldn’t place. "We never wanted to keep it from you out of malice. We were scared. We still are."

Leo didn’t respond. He just listened to the sound of his own breathing.

"She didn’t want anyone to treat her differently," her mother continued, her voice pleading. "Especially not you. You’re the only one she ever really smiled around, Leo. You make her happy. And when the doctors said there was a chance it could stabilize... that she could live a normal life... we held on to that hope. Maybe too tightly."

Leo’s grip on the phone tightened until his knuckles were white and red... "So you gambled. You gambled with her life. With our life."

"I know you’re angry," her mother whispered. "And you have every right to be. But please... right now, she needs comfort, not anger. We can talk more later. We can figure it all out. Just... be there for her. That’s all she ever wanted from you."

Leo’s hand slowly fell to his side, the phone still pressed to his ear. His chest ached with a pain so much it felt like a physical wound...

"What kind of nonsense are you saying?" he snapped, the anger returning. "What do you mean by ’later’? There is no later. We’re coming over. Today."

He ended the call without waiting for a reply, tossing the phone onto the bed. Turning back, he saw Sarah in a frail and silent position, her eyes wide and searching his face like she might fall apart if he looked away...

He then walked over, sat beside her on the bed, and gently pulled her into his arms. "Babe, I’m not going anywhere," he whispered, kissing her forehead. "You’re going to be okay."

She didn’t say anything, just clung to him, trembling. But little by little, as he held her, her breathing began to slow down. The fear in her eyes softened, and eventually, her eyelids grew heavy and closed...

Leo stayed perfectly still, barely breathing himself. The room was quiet now...

The kind of quietness that made every single thought in his head feel deafeningly loud...

His eyes stayed on her peaceful, sleepy face. Sarah. She looked so calm now, but he knew better. Behind that calm face was a series of pain and fear, something she had carried all by herself for far too long...

He felt like a fool. A complete and utter fool. How the hell didn’t he notice?

The times she was too tired to go out, the way she sometimes got out of breath for no reason...

He’d chalked it up to stress, to being overworked. How could her parents keep something like this from him? She was his girlfriend. They were supposed to be a family...

His jaw clenched again. He looked down at her hand resting against his chest...so fragile and warm, trusting...

Eventually, she drifted off completely, her head resting softly against his chest, her breathing finally deep and steady. Leo sat there for a long time, just listening to her breathe, making sure she was truly, deeply asleep...

Then, gently, he shifted to the side. Lifting her in his arms with care, not wanting to wake her, and laying her down properly on the bed. She just moved a little bit...

He pulled the covers over her, tucking them around her shoulders. For a second, he just stood there, watching the gentle rise and fall of her chest...

Then he turned and walked into the bathroom. The towel she’d used was still in the sink, soaked with blood...

He stared at it, his jaw clenched so tight it ached. Quietly, he rinsed it out in the sink, scrubbing the sink clean until it was smooth again, wiping away every single trace of what had happened. He didn’t want her waking up to that reminder...

Once the bathroom was spotless, he returned to the room and began packing their things. He moved with a quiet efficiency, folding her clothes, gathering her toiletries, unplugging her phone charger and power bank...

They were going to her parents’ house. In the morning, they’d be on their way. And this time, nobody was hiding anything from him anymore...