Chapter 88

Chapter 88
\[AVA\]
“Let me,” Max says and rushes into the bedroom, immediately helping me with a glass of water.
I try not to flinch at the way the muscles in my back scream from lying down for too long. For the most part, my back feels numb, but when I try to move, it hurts like hell.
God, how long have I been out?
I wrap my fingers around the glass and take careful sips. Once I’m done, Max takes the glass from my hand and puts it back on the nightstand.
He helps me tuck a pillow between my back and the headboard before taking a seat on the edge of the bed.
“You okay?” he asks, looking all concerned.
However, my gaze zeroes in on his face and all the bruises littered across it. I frown, my throat suddenly dry.
“What happened to your face?” I reach to cup his face, to see the bruises up close, when he scoots away and chuckles softly.
“It’s nothing. I just got into a little fight with some guys.”
“Really?” For some reason, I don’t believe him. I know he’s lying. After everything that has been happening recently, it can’t be a coincidence that he got beaten up. “You’re not lying to spare my feelings, are you?”
“Of course not,” he dismisses me as if I said something outrageous. “Why would I care about your feelings? It’s not like you’re my girlfriend or whatever.”
I can’t help it when a grin breaks across my lips, and I reach out to slap his arm. He lets me.
“You’re an asshole.”
“You just realized?” He cocks a brow, trying to be funny. “I thought you had it figured out long ago.”
“I did,” I nod, for once letting my brain wander into the pleasant side of my life before I’m forced to face the reality that’s obviously lurking like a shadow in the background. “But I’m an optimistic person, you see? I really thought there was a way to rid you of that disease. Apparently, I was wrong.”
“You were,” he nods, as if agreeing, and then laughs.
I grin, too.
And then, as I feared, the moment is gone, and dead silence fills the space between us.
“You really scared us this time,” he says after a while, no longer looking like my annoying brother. He looks worried—worried for me—and terrified, if the look in his eyes is any indication. “I’m glad you pulled through.”
“I wasn’t going to die,” I try to joke, but it falls flat.
“You can’t. No matter what, you just can’t,” he says, then picks up my hand and holds it like a promise. “We never made any promises in the past, right?”
I nod, not sure where he’s going with that.
“But today, I want you to promise me something.”
I blink, waiting for him to finish.
“Promise me that you will protect yourself better. That you will never let anything bad happen to you. That you will be cautious to the point that you look like a crazy lady.”
He looks down at the bed, still holding my hand. “I know that right now, it should be me making promises to protect you better. You’re my sister, after all, and it’s my responsibility to stand in front of you and shield you from anything bad that tries to reach you. And I will—I’ll do everything I possibly can to keep you safe. Brian will too; you already know that. But the truth is, we can’t be with you all the time. There will be moments when you’re on your own—different places, different situations—where we won’t be there to help you or pull you out of danger. And when that happens, you can’t wait for someone else to save you. You have to step up for yourself, stay alert, think clearly, and do whatever it takes to protect yourself and stay alive.”
The back of my eyes stings with tears, but I try to hold them back.
I try. I try hard enough to scrunch my face and feel something warm crawl up my neck.
But no matter how much I try, tears burst through my eyes.
When Max watches the tears running down my cheeks, he doesn’t ask me to stop.
He simply wipes my tears away and continues, his voice softer now. “I never used to think this way, but sometimes life forces you to see the truth—the kind of truth we usually ignore because we think it won’t happen to us. We walk around believing we’re safe, like nothing bad could ever touch us, but that’s not how the world works. There are people out there with bad intentions, people who don’t think twice before hurting others, and we can’t afford to be careless around them. That’s why it’s not just about being strong—it’s about being smart. It’s about staying alert, being careful, and doing everything you can to protect yourself and the people you care about. I’m not asking you to fight every battle, just to be wise enough to avoid danger when you can and handle it when you can’t. And most importantly, don’t trust blindly—because sometimes, the people who can hurt you the most are the ones closest to you.”
It’s long after Max walks out of the room—leaving me alone with my thoughts and his words still echoing in my head, warming something deep inside my chest—that I suddenly jolt upright with a blinding realization.
“Oh, shit!” I gasp, the pieces finally falling into place because of what Max just said. “I know who’s behind this.”
Shit. Shit. Shit.