Now open your eyes

My brows pinched together. “A?” It hardly came out against the pain.

Adrian cocked his head back to me as he continued into the phone, “My location?” his breathing was heavy and voice shaken as he looked over my condition, and I squeezed my eyes closed as we hit a turn. “The Masters cottage in Surrey …”

The rest drifted as I shifted to my side, cringing from the pain, and with two fingers, I pulled out Mia’s Christmas gift and clutched it into the palm of my hand. My head rocked against the window, and I turned my gaze to the sky, pi

In record time, Adrian pulled outside my cottage. My insides were on fire. The pain was unbearable, and every slow and short step toward our front door felt like a mile as our Christmas tree glowed through the window. Adrian shouted from behind me before the car door slammed, but I kept going with her gift clutched inside my fist, probably ruined. But she had to know.

Once I reached the front steps, I shoved my bloody hand into my pocket and pulled out my keys. After a few attempts, the door opened, and I collapsed against the door frame.

Then there she was, coming from our bedroom and appearing before me in her red pajamas and her hair a wild mess.

Her presence, it was overwhelming.

I dropped my arm to my side.

Mia.

I only saw her, and she saw me.

Horror flashed in her eyes, but I couldn’t wipe the smile from mine.

I made it home.

“We’re having a baby, love?” I whispered, and Mia’s hand flew over her mouth, tears slipping down her cheeks as she nodded.

A relieved breath escaped me as I sank down the door frame. Mia ran toward me, catching my fall as a scream sliced through her lovely lips and pierced the cold winter night. Together we slid to the floor, and she clutched my head against her chest as my numbed body laid out in a pool of warm blood. Desperate cries echoed through the black night as her trembling hands ran through my hair over and over.

Mia was right. There was something peaceful about death, especially in her arms. I could stay right here forever, listening to her heart beating. I’d memorized that sound. I could pick her heartbeat out in a lineup. But just as much as I’d known the sound, I felt it hard and steady inside my chest.

Because her heartbeat mirrored my mine.

Adrian tried to calm her and laid his hand over her shoulder, but Mia jerked and screamed out against him, shaking her head. The ends of her soft hair grazed my neck like the times she’d rolled her hips over me when we made love. I glanced up to see her cheeks soaked, eyes bloodshot, and snow flurries dancing wildly in her hair when my eyes became heavier.

“Ollie, please,” she cried, sobs sputtering through her trembling lips. “Open your eyes. Keep them on me.”

The pain was dissolving. I wasn’t scared anymore.

With the little strength I had left, my eyes blinked open, seeing the snow fall toward me under the same moon I’d talked to as a kid. My clenched fist opened at my side, and Mia’s gift laid in my palm. The only gift I could give her on our last Christmas—freedom.

The paper airplane fell from my fingers, and I looked up to see her screaming out, but her cries didn’t make it to my ears this time. Mia beat against my chest, but I didn’t feel it. Bright blue and red lights flashed all around, and I blinked once more to embed her golden-brown eyes into my soul.

And, finally, we were free …