Jarek.

I watched her leave.

Goddess, I watched my moon and star and even my entire solar system plus the entire freaking galaxy leave with her head hanging low.

She doesn’t know it yet but this might be the last time she would ever lay her eyes on me— at least whilst I’m alive, and I hated that the last image of her in my head was one where she was exceedingly worried about me.

Leilani had always been a woman incapable of hiding her feelings and this is why she could never hide her panic from me no matter how hard she tried.

—And it was also the reason I knew that we could never end up together, whether I survive this or not.

Because just as she cannot hide her emotions, she could also not hide the fact that she has now developed some sort of affection for the triplets.

Usually, that thought should make me feel bad, but for some reason, especially right now that my life was literally hanging on a thin thread, it didn’t. Instead, it simply filled me with a kind of peace knowing that she was going to live on in my absence while being in safe hands.

I mean, look at them!

Look at how well they take care of her.

Look how worried they get whenever she is in trouble or in pain or anything of that nature.

I know that my words right now may sound very pathetic but it was exactly how I felt. And I am not a selfish man or some inconsiderate idiot who would latch on to her knowing fully well that we had no future together.

I do not know for how long I sat there thinking these things but by the time I finally came to, I was absolutely drained. The doctor— a humongous looking man— was busy checking my vitals while a pretty petite nurse with almond face took down notes of his findings.

They left moments later, that is after asking to know how I felt at the moment which I lied about by the way.

And after all of these were done, my lawyer came in, followed closely by a tired looking Leilani.

And goddess, merely looking at her one more time as she strolled into the room made my chest extremely heavy. My heart skipped a beat when my eyes latched onto her face and as soon as I did that, they never for once left her face even as her eyes darted between I and the lawyer.

"Alpha..." my lawyer hissed, his voice gruff. But I didn’t miss the not so subtle twitching of his eyelids or the way his eyebrows furrowed slightly shortly afterwards in shock— more like as if he couldn’t quite believe his eyes.

"You summoned me,"

"Yes, I did," I rasped quietly, leaning my back against the lush pillow behind me. "We have something of importance to discuss at length."

He bowed curtly. "Well, whatever you need. It is always a pleasure to be of your service, Alpha."

I heaved a deep sigh at his words, and then turned to glance at Leilani who at the moment was actively frowning at us, her eyes darting between both of us in complete curiosity and confusion.

And while I loved her presence a little too much— a lot more than I would like to admit, I didn’t want to have her witness this.

I didn’t want her to be here.

Hell, for the first time in my life, I didn’t want to be anywhere around her.

So I beckoned her closer, and when she leaned close to me, so close that I could smell her peculiar sweet scent, I whispered; "I would like for you to give us some space."

Her eyebrows shot into her hairline.

"Huh?"

"I want to have a private discussion with him so I might need you to step out for a minute. It won’t take long, I promise." I rasped out one more time, mostly because my throat now felt too raw and too sore to speak any other way.

At my words, she nodded and smiled at me— even though it didn’t quite reach her eyes and slowly backed away.

However, she had just arrived at the door and was about to walk out of the room when I suddenly realized something which was the fact that I had to— no, needed to— see her one more time with a smile on her face.

I mean, if this was supposed to be our goodbyes then I wanted it to be filled with happy memories. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

A small smile lit up my face as I dralwed softly; "Lani?"

She stopped, turned around to look at me and tilted her head to the side.

"Huh?"

"Don’t go around with a long face. It kind of makes you look like little Miss Long."

The joke wasn’t much but it managed to crack her face into the ghost of a smile and I could only watch as she came over, kissed my cheek one more time before strutting out of the room with a little bit of excitement in her steps.

And that was exactly what I needed.

It wasn’t until she was gone and had securely locked the door behind herself that I turned to the lawyer and because I felt that I didn’t have the strength or zeal to beat around the bush anymore than I already have, I simply drawled;

"I will not survive this, lawyer."

He froze and then slowly... very slowly, his face turned ashen as the weight of my words slowly settled somewhere in his mind.

"I cannot. I can already feel myself deteriorating with each passing second. So I need your help."

For what felt like an eternity, he didn’t speak. I could even swear that he didn’t move either. Then slowly, as if suddenly shaking out of his daze, he turned to me and muttered;

"What do you need my help with, Alpha?"

I looked behind him to glance at the still closed door, and after deciding that there was no one there, I lowered my voice, beckoned him closer and whispered in a small voice; "Come closer..."

And that he did.