LOGINBella's PovThe next few days passed in a smooth pattern. I would finish my shift, then drive to Raymond’s house to lend a hand. He was managing nearly everything on his own, growing more self-reliant just as I knew he would. Today, we had a hospital appointment to check how his body was healing.“Well, Mr. Woods, you are progressing very well,” Doctor Mathews said, looking over his chart. “All your numbers are strong, and you are well on your way to a full recovery. I am glad you sought another opinion, regardless of what you were first told. That said, I do not believe you should consider returning to racing in the near future.”My mind snagged on the word. Raymond raced?“How long until I can race again?” Raymond asked, his voice level.“You have not even mastered walking again, and you are already concerned with getting back on a bike?” Doctor Mathews replied, looking at him over his glasses.Wait a minute. I knew we had not discussed his job, but fucking motorcycle racing? Was hi
BellaThe memory returned with a great force.“I do not care what Ron says. I think you are the most beautiful girl in the entire world. Pretty petals fall, but yours never will,” Hudi said.“What does that even mean?” I asked, giggling uncontrollably.“It means that no matter how lovely a flower is, its petals always drop. But you, Bella, will always keep yours.”I laughed even harder. “Are you calling me a flower, Hudi?”“Yes. That is exactly what I am doing.”Then he closed his eyes and sniffed my hair, which made me sniff my own.“I smell like coconuts, not a flower, you liar,” I told him.He burst out laughing. “Would you prefer I call you a coconut instead?”“Do not you dare,” I said, running from him as he jumped up to give chase.**************I stared at Raymond, and he stared back. Perhaps it was just a line from a film. If not, how could he possibly know the words my best friend used to say to me, every time I confessed that my mother never found me beautiful?“
BellaHe moved in, his forehead coming to rest against mine as he looked down at me with a smile. There was a deep familiarity to him, and in that moment, I understood why. His mouth drifted closer to mine, and I held my breath, waiting for the contact. The air between us was charged, intense. It felt raw, and for the first time in so long, I felt truly alive. For the first time, I felt seen.The smaller the distance grew, the harder my heart pounded against my ribs. I was terrified he would hear it. My eyes closed the instant his lips met mine, soft, warm, and tentative. A whole fucking fireworks display ignited in my stomach. My heart took flight, and a flock of frantic wings beat inside me.And he had not even properly kissed me yet. I suppose it was safe to say I was already, irrevocably, his.His lips sealed over mine, and his tongue swept across my bottom lip. A low moan escaped me, and I granted him entry. He did not hesitate, slipping his tongue inside. His kiss was fierce and
Bella’s pov"My need for you is not a temporary condition."The words sent a jolt straight through my core, and I felt the heat bloom violently across my cheeks.The following days were a trial by fire. I would complete my shifts at the hospital, my body already aching with exhaustion, only to report to Raymond’s side. He did not make it easy for me. There were moments of fragile peace, but more often, he was the same brutal man I had first encountered. I bit my tongue until it bled, swallowing back my retorts to his crude remarks. I endured.For weeks, I operated in a fog of profound fatigue, my back a constant knot of pain, my head throbbing in time with my heartbeat. But I pushed through the discomfort. He needed me. And, though I was reluctant to admit it, I needed to be the one he relied upon. I had fallen for him with a terrifying speed, yet there were days I fantasized about wrapping my hands around his throat. He tested my sanity, fraying my nerves until I thought I might snap
Bella’s povThe reassurance in her voice was a gentle anchor, but my own heart was a wild, untamed thing, bucking against the very idea of a future without him in it. The thought sent a painful, physical jolt through my chest, a sensation so acute it stole my breath. Maybe that sounds dramatic, but every fucking nerve in my body was screaming in protest.“Why does it feel like my entire universe is collapsing just because he is gone?” The question escaped me, soft and broken.“As insane as this might sound to anyone else, I believe you are in love with him, Bella.”“But how can that be?”“I am afraid I do not have the answer for that,” she said gently. “But I can tell you it is not an impossibility.”I fell silent, drowning in the implications of her words. It was not that I believed love at first sight was a myth; I just never believed it was a story that would ever belong to me. A few days later, I followed Julie’s advice. I pulled myself together and went to the hospital, only to f
Raymond'S POVSending her away was a form of self-mutilation, a deliberate shattering of my own fucking heart. But I could not chain her to a man confined to a chair for the rest of her days. She deserved someone who could be there for her in every way, and I was no longer sure I could be that man. Not that a man in a chair could not build a full life, I knew others who had thrived after their injuries. The real obstacle was my own goddamn pride. The cold, hard truth was that I would never be able to make her a mother.My mind became a battlefield. One side presented a logical, if brutal, case for why letting her go was the only decent thing to do. The other side, a raw and desperate thing, screamed just as many reasons to hold on, to fight. The conflict was fucking me up beyond belief.I cursed the man who put me in this chair. Now, after searching for her for so many years, I had found her, only to have fate laugh in my face. I could not have her. My life was a fucking cruel joke, a







