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That seemed to calm Dad a little. His chest heaved as he stared at Eva’s unmoving body. “She looks better, doesn’t she?” he whispered hopefully.
“Yeah,” Corey lied. “Come on. We’ll go out for a minute and come back when the doc’s done.”
Caleb and Corey half-hauled him out of the room. I stayed, hoping against hope that Eva wasn’t gone yet.
“Time of death: Eighteen hours sixteen minutes,” the doctor announced in a grim tone. He glanced at me with a sorrowful look. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
I looked down at Eva. She didn’t mean a thing to me but she was Milla’s mother.My loss?Even though nothing was taken from me, I felt empty.
Could I ever face Milla after this?
She’ll never forgive you, my mind whispered. The thought sent a chill through me. She already hated me. After this, I wouldn’t blame her if she wanted to kill me.
“I’m sorry,” I confessed to Eva. She seemed to listen even though her eyes were closed. “I’m sorry for everything I did to her.”
I doubted whether Eva would lie so peacefully in bed if she knew what I’d done to her daughter. Calm and gentle as she was, she’d surely curse me.
“Do you trust me that much?” I asked. “Do you really think I can protect her? Do you think she’ll let me?”
Part of my mind knew I was talking to a dead person. There would be no answer from her. Yet, I felt like Eva trusted me despite everything.
Or maybe I was slowly going crazy.
“Wake up!” I whispered in a cracked voice. “Wake up and see your daughter. She’s right here!”
Of course, Eva didn’t move or make a sound. She lay still, free from all pain and regret.
My mother’s face rose before my eyes. She’d been the same after she’d taken her last breath.
“Comfort her, Mom,” I prayed silently. “Make her forgive me.”
Tears finally fell from my eyes. I didn’t think I’d ever been so emotionally affected by anything after my mother’s death. Just imagining Milla’s pain was making me heave and weep.
Fuck! She’d laid a spell on me. No, not a spell. It was a curse.
I was forever honor-bound to Eva to look after Milla. It was the only way I could even begin to atone for the horrible mess I made for both the mother and the daughter.
43
Camilla
I struggled against the heavy black veil pressing onto me, preventing me from opening my eyes. Soft moans escaped me as I did my best to blink.
Sharp rays of light seeped through my closed eyelids, sending a shooting pain through my head. I groaned, trying to shift.
“It looks like she’s waking up,” said a strange male voice from somewhere nearby.
“She is?” A haggard male voice answered. There was something familiar about it though...
Fighting against the pain in my head, I forced my eyes open. At once, I was blinded by the intense light coming from all around me.
It took a few seconds of blinking to get used to the lighting. Slowly, I became aware of the strange room I was in. A man in blue scrubs stood close by while a familiar figure leaned against the bed rail staring at me.
“Where am I?” I asked through a parched throat.
A sob escaped the man by the bed rail.
“Brian?” I whispered in a scratchy voice. “What—what’s wrong?”
