جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 27

POV: HaleyI wake up before Nathan does, sunlight already cutting through the blinds, and for a few seconds none of it exists. Not the proposal. Not the way I answered it.Then I remember exactly how fast I changed the subject.Nathan stirs beside me, one arm still slung over my waist, and I lie there watching the ceiling until he wakes up properly."Good morning." His voice is thick with sleep."Morning."He doesn't bring it up. Neither do I.We get through breakfast, get through him checking his phone twice for something architecture-related, and it's easy enough to let the morning carry us somewhere else, until he says it anyway."About last night." He sets his mug down. "You don't have to answer right now if you're not ready.""I think we should focus on school first." I say it faster than I mean to. "You've got real shine right now in the program. Everyone's talking about your last project. This can wait.""Architecture can wait. The opportunities will always be there." He looks a

POV: NathanI get both arms under her before she hits the floor, and I'm already saying her name before I've even processed what's happening."Haley. Hey. Look at me."Nothing.My fingers find her pulse the same place they did last time, and I hold onto counting it because it gives my hands something to do besides shake.Avriel's already talking to the dispatcher, address repeated twice, voice pitched higher than I've ever heard it. Someone's cleared the folding tables out of the way. Someone else has turned the music off, and the silence that's left behind makes everything feel louder than it should.The paramedics come through the double doors nine minutes later. It feels longer."She has a heart condition." I say, before they even ask. "Her doctor is Reeves at Whitmore General. There's a specialist too—Okafor. I can get you numbers if you need them.""Good. That's good, keep going." One of them's already got a cuff around her arm, the other lifting her eyelids one at a time with a s

POV: Haley"Let go of her hand."Nathan says it again, quieter this time, like the volume was the only thing wrong with it the first time.Kai still doesn't move his hand from mine, his eyes fixed on me the whole time."Haley." The word comes out rough. "What exactly did he say?""The DNA doesn't match."I hear myself answer it the same way I have three times already, like repeating it might eventually make it sound less impossible."They ran it twice and it came back the same both times."Kai's grip tightens slightly around my hand before he catches himself and loosens it again."No."It's quiet. Automatic.The kind of answer people give before they've actually processed what they've heard."They're checking again, right?"I shake my head.For a second it looks like he's zoning out until he drags a hand over his face."Jesus, Haley."I don't think I've ever heard him sound helpless before.Nathan shifts beside the bed."Kai."I pull my hand back before either of them can turn this in