I coughed, clearing my throat and moving forward to where Rune was standing still, like a statue. Laying my hand over my heart, I said in a croaked voice, “I had to fight. I had to give it my all. I had to try. And I wanted you along with me more than you could ever imagine.” My wet lashes began to dry in the cool breeze. “You would have dropped everything to try to get to me. You already hated your parents, hated your life in Oslo; I could hear it every time we spoke. You had grown so bitter. How could you have ever possibly coped with this?”
My head throbbed, a pounding headache taking hold.
I needed to leave. I needed to leave it all. I backed away. Rune remained deathly still. I wasn’t even sure he had blinked.
“I need to go, Rune.” I gripped onto my chest, knowing that the last piece of me would break with what I said next. “Let’s just leave this here, in the blossom grove we loved so much. Let us end whatever we had … whatever we were.” My voice had almost faded to nothing, but with a final push, I whispered, “I’ll stay away from you. You stay away from me. We’ll finally put us to rest. Because it has to be this way.” I ducked my eyes, not wanting to see the hurt in Rune’s eyes. “I can’t bear all the pain.” I laughed weakly.
“I need moonbeam hearts and sunshine smiles.” I smiled to myself. “It’s what’s keeping me going. I won’t stop believing in a beautiful world. I won’t let it break me.” I forced myself to look at Rune. “And I won’t be the cause of any more hurt for you.”
As I turned my head, I saw a fissure of agony fracture Rune’s expression. But I didn’t stall. I ran. I ran fast, just managing to pass my favorite tree when Rune grabbed my arm and swung me around again.
“What?” he demanded. “What the hell are you talking about?” He was breathing harshly. “You just explained nothing! You spout about saving me and sparing me. But from what? What did you think I couldn’t handle?”
“Rune, please,” I begged and pushed him away. He was on me in a flash, hands on my shoulders, anchoring me in place.
“Answer me!” he shouted.
I pushed from him again. “Let me go!” My heart raced with trepidation. My skin prickled with goosebumps. I turned to go again, but his hands held me still. I struggled and struggled, trying to get away, for once trying to flee the tree whose shelter always brought me solace.
“Let me go!” I shouted again.
Rune leaned in. “No, tell me. Explain yourself!” he shouted back.
“Rune—”
“Explain!” he shouted, cutting me off.
I shook my head faster, trying, to no avail, to escape. “Please! Please!” I begged.
“Poppy!”
“NO!”
“EXPLAIN!”
“I’M DYING!” I screamed into the silent grove, unable to take it anymore. “I’m dying,” I added breathlessly. “I’m … dying…”
As I clutched my chest, trying to catch my breath, the enormity of what I’d done slowly filtered into my brain. My heart pounded. It pounded from the onslaught of panic. It pounded and raced with the terrifying knowledge of what I’d just admitted … of what I’d just confessed.
I continued to stare at the ground. Somewhere in my brain, it registered that Rune’s hands had frozen on my shoulders. As I felt the heat from his palms, I also realized that they were shaking. I heard his breath, dragging and labored.
I forced myself to raise my gaze and lock on to Rune’s. His eyes were wide and racked with pain.
At that moment, I hated myself. Because that look in his eyes, that haunted, gutting stare, was the reason I had broken my promise to him two years ago.
It was why I’d had to set him free.
As it turned out, I had only imprisoned him with bars of rage instead.
“Poppy…,” he whispered, accent heavy, as his face paled to the whitest of white.
“I have Hodgkin lymphoma. It’s advanced. And it’s terminal.” My voice trembled as I added, “I have a matter of months left to live, Rune. There’s nothing anyone can do.”
I waited. I waited to see what Rune had to say, but he said nothing. Instead, he backed away. His eyes traveled over my face, searching for any sign of deception. When none was found, he shook his head. A soundless “no” left his mouth. Then he ran. He turned his back on me, and he ran.
It was many minutes before I found the strength to move.
It was ten minutes after that when I walked through the door of my house, where my mama and daddy were sitting with the Kristiansens.
But it was only seconds after seeing me when my mama rushed to where I stood, and I fell into her arms.
Where I broke my heart for the heart I’d just broken.
The one I’d always strived to save.
Rune
I’M DYING … I’m dying … dying … I have Hodgkin lymphoma. It’s advanced. And it’s terminal … I have a matter of months left to live, Rune. There’s nothing anyone can do…
I sprinted through the darkness of the park as Poppy’s words circled around and around my mind. I’M DYING … I’m dying … dying … I have a matter of months left to live, Rune. There’s nothing anyone can do…
Pain, the like of which I never knew was possible, pierced my heart. It sliced, stabbed and throbbed away at me until my feet skidded to a stop and I fell to my knees. I tried to breathe, but the pain had barely just begun, moving to rip through my lungs until nothing was left. It traveled with lightning speed through my body, taking all, until only pain remained.
I’d been wrong. I’d been so wrong.
I had thought that Poppy cutting me off for two years was the greatest pain I would ever have to endure. It had changed me, fundamentally changed me. Being broken up, simply being frozen out hurt … but this … this…
Falling forward, crippled by the pain in my stomach, I roared into the darkness of the empty park. My hands scratched at the hard earth beneath my palms, twigs slicing at my fingers, ripping up my nails.
But I welcomed it. This pain I could cope with, but the pain inside…
Poppy’s face flashed into my mind’s eye. Her perfect damn face as she entered the den tonight. Her smiling face finding Ruby and Deacon, and that smile fading from her lips when her eyes found mine. I saw the devastation flash across her face when she saw Avery sitting beside me, my arm around her shoulders.
What she hadn’t seen was me watching her from the kitchen window as she sat outside with Jorie. She hadn’t seen me arrive when I’d never planned to be there in the first place. When Judson texted me that Poppy had arrived, nothing could hold me back.
She’d ignored me. From the minute I saw her in the hallway last week, she’d never said a word to me.
And it killed me.
I thought when I came back to Blossom Grove there would be answers. I thought I’d discover why she pulled away.
I choked on a strangled sob. I never, ever, in my wildest dreams, thought it could be anything like this. Because it’s Poppy. Poppymin. My Poppy.
She couldn’t die.
She couldn’t leave me behind.
She couldn’t leave any of us behind.
Nothing made sense if she wasn’t around. She had more life to live. She was meant to be with me for eternity.
Poppy and Rune for infinity.
Forever always.
Months? I couldn’t … she couldn’t…