Can't Stay Away ✔️

44. Stronger together

Vote and comment! Things would be better in the next chapter.❤️

Since this book is ending very soon, I'll be updating my other book actively. You guys could check it out if you want! 

It's called Annika - The Scorned Wife. It is an arrange marriage erotica.

A Y E S H A

I wake slowly, like I'm emerging from a deep, dark ocean. Everything feels heavy—my limbs, my chest, my heart. My eyes flutter open, and for a moment, everything is blurry. The cold air smells of antiseptic, the dull beeping of machines surrounds me. As my vision clears, I see him.

Arjun is sitting beside me, his face hollow, his eyes bloodshot. He looks completely shattered, still wearing the same clothes, dried blood staining his shirt—my blood. His head is bowed, his fingers tightly wrapped around mine, as if he's afraid to let go. Even in sleep, his brow is furrowed, his face etched with pain.

My heart clenches at the sight of him like this.

The memories flood back slowly, painfully. The gunshot. The blood. The frantic rush to the hospital. Then, like a punch to the gut, I remember the baby. Our baby.

A wave of grief hits me, but before I can fully feel it, I remember something else—his voice. His broken, desperate words filtering through the haze as I lay unconscious.

The rawness in his voice, the despair, pierces through me. He was talking to me, pleading with me, ready to follow me into the dark. The thought of it twists my heart in ways I didn't think were possible.

How long has he been sitting here, drowning in guilt, in fear? How much has he been suffering, thinking he's lost me... and our child?

I want to cry. I want to scream. But right now, all I can think about is him. His pain. His devastation. I've never seen him so broken.

Swallowing back my own grief, I gently squeeze his hand. "Arjun..."

His eyes fly open, and in an instant, he's at my side, leaning over me, his face a mixture of relief and anguish.

"Baby... thank God," he chokes out, brushing my hair away from my forehead. He leans down, pressing a kiss to my temple, then my cheek, and finally, my hand. "You're awake... I was so—"

"I'm okay," I whisper, though we both know it's a lie. I can't say it aloud. Not yet.

His breath hitches, and he shakes his head, unable to speak for a moment. "You scared me, Ayesha. I thought—" His voice cracks, and he swallows hard, blinking back the tears that are threatening to spill. "I thought I lost you."

I can barely stand to see him like this. He looks like he's been to hell and back, a man barely holding on.

"I'm here," I whisper, forcing my voice to stay steady. "I'm here, Arjun."

But the weight in his eyes tells me he's been carrying the burden of so much more than just my injuries. His gaze shifts briefly to my stomach, and for a moment, he looks like he might break again.

I know what he's thinking. I know what he's not saying. The baby.

A tear slips down my cheek, but I blink back the rest. I can't fall apart, not now. He's barely holding himself together, and I can't let him crumble. Not when he's been so strong for me.

His eyes close, and when he opens them, his gaze is full of pain, but also something deeper. Love, desperation, hope—all of it swirling together in a chaotic storm.