Chapter 3 - The Garden’s Truth
That night, I did something I hadn't done in eight years. I didn't take my medicine. I didn't call the nurses. I wheeled myself into the winter garden, the moonlight casting long, skeletal shadows of the imported trees against the glass.
Lily was there, waiting. She had lit the fountains. The sound of the water was the exact rhythm of Audrey’s favorite lullaby.
"You have to stand," Lily said.
"I can't," I said, my voice breaking. "I don't know who I am if I'm not the man who lost everything."
"You are the man who gained time," she replied. She walked to the fountain and pulled out a hidden panel in the marble base. Inside was a diary. Audrey’s diary. It had been missing since the day of the crash.
I opened it, my hands trembling. The last entry was written the morning she died. Caleb is building a kingdom, but he's forgotten that the kingdom is only for us to walk through together. If I go, he will stop. He will forget how to step forward. I have to find a way to remind him that the path doesn't end.
I looked up, tears blurring my vision. "She knew? She knew this would happen?"
"She knew you," Lily said.
I gripped the armrests of my chair. The anger, the cold, the power I had used to hide my sorrow—it all felt like a costume that was finally tearing at the seams. I pushed down, feeling the muscles in my thighs scream with the effort of atrophy. My legs felt like lead, like wood, like useless weights.
"Get up," Lily whispered.
May you like
I pushed again. My breath came in ragged sobs. I felt the floor beneath my feet, the cold marble pressing against my soles. For the first time, I didn't try to force it. I didn't try to be the Harbor King. I just tried to be Caleb.
And then, I was standing.
