Chapter 29 Chapter 0029
•CASSANDRA•
That night after Darius had called, sleep didn't come. I kept tossing and turning, thinking about what he was asking of me.
It should've been easier to decline and move on with my life, but it kept me up at night. I kept thinking that if Mason died, somehow it would be my fault.
The moment my alarm rang, I got up and went to shower. I turned on the faucet and stood under the showerhead, letting the hot water run down my neck and back.
I closed my eyes and hoped it would take the tension off my shoulders. I didn't want to risk another day of being distracted.
But as I was about to get out of the shower, a sudden surge rippled through my chest. I clutched my chest and groaned, trying to steady myself against the tile wall.
A familiar warmth spread through my chest, and the severed mate bond, which had been dormant for five years, stirred to life.
In that instant, I felt Mason's scent and presence, but he wasn't too well. His heart was beating slowly, and he was struggling to breathe properly.
He was dying.
I shut off the water quickly. I wrapped a towel around myself and stepped out, legs unsteady. My reflection in the mirror looked pale.
I sat on the edge of the tub and tried to breathe evenly. Five years ago, I had felt the bond snap when Mason rejected me.
The pain had been excruciating, a physical tearing that left me hollow. I had rebuilt my life without it, convinced it was gone forever.
Now it had returned, not to pull me back to him, but to warn me he was slipping away.
I stood up and dressed slowly. My mind raced. Part of me wanted to ignore it. Mason had chosen Nadia. He had believed the lies, banished me, and taken my son.
He deserved whatever fate brought him. But another part—the part that still remembered the man I had loved—could not let him die if I could stop it.
I drove to the hospital with the windows down, letting the cool morning air clear my head. I decided I wouldn't go.
I would stay here, with Elena, with the life I had built. Mason had made his choices, and I had made mine.
By late afternoon, I was in the operating theater performing a heart transplant on a young woman named Lila Chen.
She had been waiting for a donor match for months. The surgery went smoothly. The new heart took to her body perfectly, beating strongly by the time I closed the incision.
When the nurses came to wheel her back to her room, a folded piece of paper slipped from the pocket of her hospital gown, and I picked it up.
I intended to put it away for safekeeping, but curiosity got the better of me. I opened it and read it.
Letter: "Lila. If you are reading this, it means my heart is beating inside you now. I am sorry I could not stay longer. I am sorry I couldn't be the man you deserved. Please live, be happy, and love again. My heart only ever wanted to love you. So, use it now to love as much as you can. It's big enough to love someone you love. Forever yours, Ethan."
The letter trembled in my hand. I folded it carefully and slipped it into her chart for when she woke, and tried to stop myself from crying over it.
Ethan was involved in a car accident after Lila had been waiting for a heart transplant for months. The police believed the accident was too deliberate.
He wanted to die for her so that she could live.
I walked to the locker room and sat on the bench as I prepared myself to clock out.
When I got up to change, Amelia walked in with two nurses behind her. She folded her arms across her chest as she leaned toward me.
"I heard the board talking about your heart transplant surgery, but for your sake, I hope you weren't distracted again. It would be a shame if another patient were to file a lawsuit. Can you imagine?" She laughed, mocking. "Anyway, congratulations, Dr. Frost. You are truly a good show to watch, waiting for it to flop."
I rolled my eyes and turned back to my locker. I took off my work clothes and got dressed in mine. When I was done, I walked up to Amelia.
"And you, Dr. Hart, will wait for an eternity. The way I see it, you're my number one fan. I truly feel blessed to have people like you," I scoffed, and walked past her.
She clicked her tongue behind me and said something to her minions that I couldn't quite catch, but I didn't care.
Again that night, Dante came to have dinner with us.
We were so used to having him around that if he didn't come, Elena noticed and would ask where he was.
And I enjoyed those nights when he came more than I wanted to admit.
"School was good, Uncle D," Elena said proudly. "I have a new friend now. Her name is Ellie."
"Ellie?" Dante smiled. "That's a lovely name, bud. You must tell Ellie tomorrow that I want to meet her."
"I will," she responded with a smile as she continued eating.
After eating, Dante went to sleep in the guest room, and I went to tuck Elena into bed.
I was about to head into bed when the same sensation I had felt in the morning returned.
I could feel him slipping, the steady rhythm of his heart faltering. I started panicking when even his presence felt like it was slowly slipping away.
I pressed my hand to my mouth to stifle a sound, tears burning my eyes. Every instinct screamed at me to go to him, to do something, to not let him fade away while I stood safely behind locked doors.
“I can’t,” I whispered, though I didn’t know who I was trying to convince.
My cell phone rang from the hospital as I was about to head out to my car in the driveway.
"Hello?"
"Dr. Frost," the receptionist answered. "There's a patient who needs you. His name is Mason Steele."