Chapter 10: Three Months Became Days

Selene's condition worsened faster than anyone expected.

By the end of the week, she could barely stay awake for more than an hour at a time.

Kane came every day.

He never entered without permission.

Sometimes Selene let him sit beside her. Sometimes she told her mother she was too tired, and Kane waited outside instead.

He stopped asking for forgiveness.

He had finally understood that forgiveness was not another thing Selene owed him.

Instead, he brought pieces of the life they once shared.

A jar of moonberries from the hill where they had played as children.

A repaired copy of the photograph he had smashed seven years earlier.

The silver couple's rings.

Selene stared at them when he placed them on the bedside table.

"You kept them?"

"I picked them up after everyone left."

She looked surprised.

"I thought you threw them away."

"I wanted you to think that."

Kane smiled without humor. "Apparently, we were both very good at making each other believe things that weren't true."

Selene touched one ring with a trembling finger.

"I hated you for years," Kane admitted.

"I know."

"But I never stopped carrying these."

Her eyes filled with tears.

"Don't say things like that now."

"Why?"

"Because they make me want things I can't have."

Kane sat very still.

"What do you want?"

Selene looked toward the window.

"Time."

He had no answer.

That evening, Kane carried her to the old oak tree.

Her mother walked several steps behind them, giving them privacy without truly leaving.

Kane spread a blanket beneath the tree and sat with Selene leaning against the trunk.

For a while, neither spoke.

"Do you remember our first kiss?" Selene asked.

"You bit my lip."

"You surprised me."

"You told everyone I attacked you."

She laughed softly.

The sound made Kane's chest ache.

"You chased me through half the forest afterward."

"And caught you."

"You always caught me."

The smile faded from her face.

Kane looked away.

"Not when it mattered."

Selene rested her head against the tree.

"Kane, I need you to stop punishing yourself while I'm still here."

"How?"

"By remembering that we were both young when this started. Your mother manipulated me. I lied to you. You believed the lie. Then we both spent seven years becoming people we never meant to become."

"I hurt you after I came back."

"Yes."

She didn't soften it.

"And I won't pretend that didn't happen just because you're sorry."

Kane nodded.

"But I don't want the last thing between us to be hatred either."

He looked at her.

"What do you want it to be?"

Selene slowly reached for his hand.

"Truth."

Their fingers intertwined.

Under the same oak where one lie had destroyed them, Selene finally told Kane everything.

She told him about the first diagnosis.

About Ilsa kneeling beside her hospital bed.

About Harlan being paid to play a role.

About vomiting behind the oak after Kane saw the staged kiss.

About watching him stand outside her house for three days.

About nearly opening the door a hundred times.

About every treatment.

Every failed cure.

Every year she survived beyond the healers' predictions.

"Why did you keep fighting?" Kane whispered.

Selene smiled.

"At first? Because I wanted to see you again."

His eyes closed.

"And later?"

"Because eventually I learned my life belonged to me too."

Kane squeezed her hand.

For the first time, he understood that loving Selene now did not mean claiming her.

It meant honoring whatever time she had left.