Chapter 68 "We’ll Never Be Apart!"
Blissfully, mercifully deceived by the absolute, collective kindness of everyone who loved him, Nathan's face was frequently illuminated by a profound, genuine smile during those surreal years.
Those who fundamentally understood Nathan believed it was entirely fine to violently play along and let him believe that Chloe had truly returned from the void.
If this beautiful, impossible delusion was the only thing keeping him from blowing his own brains out, then as long as Nathan was happy, that was more than enough.
But this year... somehow, the protective fuse had violently snapped. Nathan suddenly, brutally woke up.
The heavy, golden dream violently ended, and his beautiful ghost vanished into thin air.
He had sat completely motionless in the dark living room of the old mansion for an entire day, completely paralyzed, neither speaking nor shedding a single tear. It was as if his psychological illness had suddenly, cruelly lifted, his brilliant mind violently clearing to realize that the past few years had been nothing but an absolute, pathetic hallucination.
When a terrified Mason had finally found him sitting there in the dark, Nathan had simply looked at his son with completely dead, empty eyes. "Don't worry, Mason. I'm completely fine. I came to terms with reality a long time ago."
Mason fundamentally knew he was lying.
He could clearly, agonizingly feel Nathan becoming completely, suffocatingly silent and profoundly depressed.
Within a year of his mind clearing, Nathan’s physical body completely collapsed. He was rushed to the intensive care unit.
The neurosurgeons explained to a devastated Mason that his father's brain had never fully, structurally recovered from the catastrophic trauma of the landslide surgery years ago, and that his neurological condition had now rapidly, irreversibly deteriorated due to extreme emotional stress.
He fell into a deep, prolonged coma, his failing body shutting down as if entering a dark, endless hibernation.
Mason was absolutely terrified, violently gripped by the fear that Nathan might literally never wake up again, leaving him entirely alone with no chance to even say a proper goodbye.
Sitting in the stark hospital room, Mason wept bitterly, completely unable to count how many hot, agonizing tears he had shed over his father's withered hand.
Completely exhausted from crying, the teenager finally surrendered. He rested his heavy head directly on the edge of Nathan's hospital mattress, desperately hoping that perhaps, by some miracle, Nathan would wake up by dawn.
Ah... those were the exact, delusional words Nathan used to whisper constantly in the empty house. "Perhaps by dawn, she'll finally be back."
Mason closed his eyes and fell into a deep, exhausted sleep.
Nathan slowly fluttered his eyes open on the hospital bed.
Instead of the sterile, fluorescent ceiling of the ICU, he was instantly greeted by a blinding, soft, completely ethereal white light.
Out of the golden haze, a devastatingly beautiful woman with vibrant golden-brown hair pulled back into a messy ponytail slowly approached him. She was incredibly lively, her eyes sparkling with absolute, undeniable adoration.
She was wearing the cheap, bright red winter coat he had bought for her.
At the time they had bought it, he was just a struggling graduate student completely buried in debt, so the coat had been incredibly inexpensive—less than twenty dollars on a clearance rack—but the cut and style had been exceptionally, dangerously flattering on her.
They had aggressively hunted for it together, laughing and chasing each other down the crowded aisles of an affordable Chicago department store for hours before finally finding the perfect one.
It was a brutally fitted, true crimson-red coat with a thick ring of cheap, white faux fur trim around the tight cuffs and wide collar.
Chloe had absolutely adored it the very second she tried it on, completely uncaring about its pathetic price tag. She had worn it religiously every single day that winter with her knee-high black leather boots, looking so fiercely vibrant and confident that she had constantly drawn envious, admiring glances from every man on the street.
She would smile contentedly, aggressively linking her arm through his as they rode the freezing subway, shopped for cheap groceries at the supermarket, or snuggled tightly together on the broken couch in his freezing apartment, watching terrible TV.
The cheap faux fur on that discount coat constantly, violently shed, the white fibers floating absolutely everywhere with her every movement.
Sometimes, when he would finally arrive at his pristine university lab to work, he'd look down and find a dozen tiny white fluffies stubbornly clinging to his dark wool sweater.
He would call her from the lab just to gently tease her. "Look, you menace. Your cheap fur got all over me again."
She would violently, indignantly retort on the other end of the line: "It is absolutely not my fur! The coat is just tragically poorly manufactured! It's your fault for being broke!"
After a comfortable silence, Nathan had softly promised, "How about I finally buy you a real, expensive one next month when my grant check clears?"
Chloe had shaken her head, laughing through the phone. "Forget it, Professor. I'm taking the train back to my parents' house in Minnesota in a couple days for break. You can buy it for me when I finally come back. Remember, you explicitly owe me a new coat!"
"Okay. I swear I'll buy it for you the absolute second you get back."
Later that week, she had boarded the train to return to her hometown, wearing that exact same bright red coat that shed like absolute crazy.
But Nathan had remembered that unfulfilled promise for the absolute rest of his agonizing life.
He fundamentally owed her a new, beautiful coat.
Lying in the blinding white light, Nathan's dark eyes instantly reddened with tears. He slowly, desperately reached out his trembling hand toward the radiant woman.
She smiled warmly, a brilliant, life-giving sound. She reached out, her soft, warm hands firmly grasping his cold ones, and gently pulled him completely up from the hospital bed. "Nathan... get up. I've been waiting for you for so unbelievably long."
Instantly, the frail, emaciated, aged Nathan completely transformed. The gray vanished from his hair, the wrinkles smoothed from his skin. He reverted entirely to his devastatingly handsome, twenty-two-year-old self, his sharp face already heavily streaked with hot tears.
He gazed deeply, desperately into her golden eyes, his deep voice cracking with an agonizing hint of absolute, profound hurt. "Where did you go? I ripped the entire world apart, and I couldn't find you anywhere."
"I’ve always been right here beside you," Chloe smiled softly, raising her hands to gently caress his sharp cheekbones, her thumbs completely wiping away the silent tears violently sliding down his face.
"Really?" Nathan’s sadness deepened into a dark, desperate terror. "But everyone kept aggressively telling me you were dead. They said you were just a sick figment of my imagination. Is that true? Are you real?"
"Of course not!" Chloe frowned, genuinely offended. She stood up on her tiptoes, completely closing the distance to press her forehead firmly, aggressively against his. She comforted him with terrifying, absolute earnestness. "I am absolutely not a hallucination you invented! I am truly, physically back! You are such a brilliant, silly goose. How many millions of times do I have to explicitly tell you?!"
Young Nathan finally broke into a profound, breathtaking smile, his face as devastatingly beautiful as ever. "I'm sorry. Please don't be angry with me. I just... I was so incredibly scared. You know I'm an old man now; my broken mind gets fuzzy sometimes. I literally can't tell reality from dreams anymore."
"Look at you, aggressively calling yourself old again," Chloe pulled back slightly from his tight embrace, dramatically pouting her lips in playful indignation. "Nathan Archer, listen to me. No matter how incredibly old and grumpy you get, I will still fiercely love you. More than absolutely anything in this universe!"
"Alright. I promise I won't say it anymore," Nathan immediately surrendered, wrapping his heavy arms completely around her waist to pull her violently back into his chest. "Say it again. Please. Tell me just one more time that you're really back."
"You are completely hopeless. Just as desperately clingy as you were in college," Chloe laughed, a bright, musical sound, playfully tugging hard on his earlobe. "Nathan! I'm back! I'm back! I'm back! Is a thousand times enough for your massive ego?"
"Not even close," Nathan murmured, burying his face in her neck.
"Then ten thousand times."
"Still not enough."
"Ugh, you are so incredibly annoying," Chloe sighed, feigning absolute, utter exasperation. She aggressively stood on her tiptoes, framing his face, and planted several firm, scorching kisses directly onto his lips. Between desperate, wet kisses, she murmured, "Is this enough, Professor?"
"It has to be exactly like this forever," Nathan replied, his voice breaking, fiercely kissing her back.
Chloe planted a few more deep kisses on his jaw. "Alright. Fine. Let me completely spoil my Nathan properly."
He closed his eyes tightly, violently caging her in his arms, utterly terrified to let her go. "We will never, ever be apart again. Okay?"
"Mhm," Chloe hummed against his lips, her arms locking around his neck. "Never apart."
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP.
A single, endless, unbroken tone flatlined across the heart monitor in the silent hospital room.