LITTLE SECRET | RAFE CAMERON

83: 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦

Alice's heart hammered in her chest as she stepped into the dimly lit hospital room. The cold, sterile air hit her like a wave, but it wasn't the chill that made her shiver.

It was the weight of the moment, the sheer finality of being there.

She hadn't seen Rafe since the moment she'd walked away. And she hadn't known what to expect when she arrived, hadn't known what she would be walking into this time.

But this...this was nothing like what she'd imagined.

Her legs moved on their own, carrying her deeper into the room, every step dragging her closer to the scene she had dreaded. The beeping of the machines was almost too much to bear, the kind of sound that made her think of time running out, of life hanging by the thinnest of threads.

And then, just as she rounded the corner of the room, she saw him.

For a second, everything stopped. The world held its breath.

Rafe lay there, fragile and hooked up to tubes and monitors. His usually wild, messy hair was matted against the pillow, and his skin was unnaturally pale, a ghost of the vibrant person he once was.

He looked smaller than she remembered, his body swallowed by the hospital bed. The man who had once been a storm was now so...vulnerable.

But what struck her most was his eyes - those blue eyes that had once held so much fire, so much life.

And as they met hers, the breath was stolen right from her lungs.

His gaze was haunted. There was so much pain in it that it felt like it was cutting through her, deeper than she had ever expected. And beneath it all was that unmistakable pull, that ache of a love still lingering in the air between them.

In the span of that single, piercing moment, Alice's heart broke all over again.

She froze. Her mind screamed at her to look away, to hold onto the distance she had worked so hard to create between them. But her body wouldn't listen. Instead, she found herself taking a shaky step closer, unable to tear her eyes from his, unable to escape the gravity that still pulled her towards him.

Rafe's lips parted, his breath shallow, his voice barely a whisper.

„Ali..."

It was his voice. That voice.

The one that used to soothe her, the one that had once been her safe place. Now it was cracked and hoarse, and it carried the weight of everything that had happened between them.

She had left him. But now, standing here, looking into the raw pain in his eyes, she realized she had left herself, too.

A tear slipped down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away, her hand trembling. She couldn't let him see how much this hurt. She couldn't let him know just how much she had missed him, how much she still loved him, despite everything.

But it was impossible to hide from the truth.

„God..." She breathed a shaky sigh, running her hands through her hair. „...Rafe"

Her heart ached in ways she couldn't even describe. She had thought she could move on, thought she could heal without him. But the truth was, the hole he had left in her was still there.

And seeing him now - broken and so very human - was like opening that wound all over again.

„I thought you..." She whispered, couldn't even finish her sentence as she felt the tears gathering again.