I can see you

Chapter 23

(EDWARD'S POV)

She was already trembling before I said a word. I saw it in the way her body tensed, her hands curled like they were trying to hold onto something that was already slipping away. Her lips moved soundlessly, her eyes were unfocused. She wasn't here, not fully. She was already spiraling down.

But I couldn't stop now. Not when we were this close.

"Rosy," I said, barely above a whisper. "You need to hear this."

She didn't respond. Just stared through me. Still frozen, like her body had turned to stone.

I hesitated, then forced myself to keep going. My voice was shaking. "That day... six years ago, you... no, your other self, Riya stabbed your mother."

She flinched slightly, almost imperceptibly, but didn't blink. Her breathing stayed shallow and mechanical.

"It wasn't the stab that killed her," I said, barely holding myself together. "She was found burned... next to my younger brother."

My voice cracked. "Next to Roy."

I looked away. I couldn't bear her face while I said it.

"Roy was invited by your mother that day," I continued, trying to control the shake in my hands. "She told him it was a surprise. Said you'd be thrilled. It was your first ballet performance and you'd worked so hard. She said he was the only one who'd really make you smile."

I paused, swallowing hard.

"He didn't come with us on our family picnic that day. He went to see you. To make you proud."

My jaw clenched.

"But your mother had other plans. She'd been trying to get rid of him for a long time. Said he was a bad influence. A distraction. That he made you soft. She drugged his juice that afternoon with something strong and knocked him out. She thought no one would suspect a thing."

I stepped forward, voice growing thinner, more frayed.

"But Roy... he woke up. He was confused and Scared. He called us. I couldn't hear everything but his voice was all over the place. All we could make out was him saying he woke up... and your mother was lying dead in the house with a knife in her gut."

I didn't know what he meant. Not then but we tried to reach him. We drove back, as fast as we could and that's when the accident happened. My father died instantly. My mother was gone by the time the paramedics got to her.

And Roy? Roy burned.

Red dots floated all around me and the world was starting to spin. I blinked hard, forcing the memories back down and looked at Rosy again. Still no reaction. She was sweating now, her eyes glassy, her lips parted like she wanted to scream but had forgotten how.

"Rosy?" I said softly. "Please..."

She blinked at me once. Then twice. But whatever was behind her eyes was slipping. Her whole body went slack and her knees buckled before I even saw it coming.

"Rosy!"

I lunged forward and caught her just before she hit the ground. I lowered her gently to the floor, her weight light in my arms. Her skin was clammy, her breathing shallow. My hands were shaking. My chest hurt. Something in me was breaking open all over again.

I pulled out my phone with numb fingers. There was only one person I could call. Killian. He picked up after one ring. I don't remember what I said exactly, just fragments, desperation spilling through the receiver.

"She collapsed. After I told her. It was too much-"

Killian's voice cut through the haze calm and even.

"Slow down. Where are you?"

I gave him the address. He already knew it.

"She's breathing?"

"Yes."

"Any physical trauma?"

"No, but she's not responding."

He paused a bit and then replied, "It's not uncommon."

He spoke gently, like a man explaining thunder to a child.

"When someone with dissociative identity disorder is confronted with an overwhelming memory especially a violent one they may dissociate completely. Sometimes the body protects itself by shutting down. Don't worry it's temporary."

My throat was tight. "So she's... she's unconscious because the truth triggered her?"

"Yes," he said. "And it may mean something else, too."

"What?"

He hesitated just for a second. "It may mean her personalities are starting to merge."

That word. Merge. It hit me like a knife to the gut. I stood there, holding her limp hand, trying to picture what that meant. What it looked like. I wanted Riya out so that I could earase her from Rosy. But if she merged with Rosy...

Her remembering everything. Her remembering Roy. Remembering the fire. Remembering what she did. Remembering... who she loved first.

I didn't want that. I couldn't want that. Because if she remembered, truly remembered, she wouldn't stay with me. She wouldn't forgive me. She'd go back to Roy in her mind, in her heart, and I'd be nothing again.

A shadow beside the boy she lost. The thought clawed through me like wildfire. I had promised myself I'd avenge Roy by punishing the person responsible. But no one told me I'd fall in love with her. No one told me that the girl I hated would become the only thing keeping me alive.

And now, I couldn't let her go. Not now or ever.

Killian's voice returned, clinical and final. "Let her rest and if she wakes, let her speak first. Don't push or offer explanations."

"I understand," I lied and he hung up.

I stayed beside her for hours. Watching and waiting.

The sun had vanished behind the house, and now the stars were starting to blink into the inky sky. I remember, when I was a child, I used to believe her hair was made of the same material as the night sky. Silky, endless and full of untold secrets. Back then, I used to look up and wonder if she dreamed in constellations but now I just wonder if she dreams of him.

I watched the rise and fall of her chest like it was the only truth left in the world. Then she whispered something in her sleep.

"Please... Mom, no. I can't live without him. Please..."

My heart twisted. Roy. Even now, in sleep she begged for him.

The jealousy came hot and fast. It felt like some was choking me with a rope around my throat. I hated how fast it happened and how human it made me feel. I looked away and almost stood up. But then she stirred. Her eyes fluttered open, slow, glassy, blinking against the low light.

She winced, clutching her temple. "It was the fire..." she mumbled. "The blood... Roy..."

Her breath hitched. Then she saw me. Her eyes locked onto mine and something in them changed. Her voice cracked.

"I didn't mean to-Edward, I didn't mean to..."

I stared at her. Her voice sounded different. Her face was the same, but softer and maybe a bit younger.I realised it was not Rosy but not entirely Riya either.

Somewhere in between.

And I didn't know what scared me more: That she was finally coming back to me or that she was about to disappear forever.