Part 3You Loved Her While I Slept

We met at our old favorite Italian spot. The second I opened the private dining room door, my best friend Harper collided with me, wrapping me in a fierce, crushing hug.

She was laughing and sobbing at the same time. "You're awake. God, you're actually awake. He wasn't lying."

She pulled back just enough to punch me hard in the shoulder.

"Margot Hayes, how dare you! Five years. How dare you make me wait that long."

When she looked past me and saw Preston standing in the doorway, her smile vanished. But when she saw who was standing behind him, her face turned thunderous.

"Nolan is in London for a deposition, but he knows. He's trying to get the first flight back," she said to me, her grip on my hands white-knuckled, as if I might dissolve into mist if she let go.

It made my throat ache. This was what a reunion was supposed to feel like.

Then Harper turned her fury to the door. Lily was standing there, clutching a gift bag, looking like a cornered deer.

"What the fuck is this, Preston?" Harper snarled. "You brought her here? Are you trying to make Margot sick?"

Preston scowled. "Lily wanted to apologize to Margot face-to-face for what happened. She made a terrible mistake, but she’s spent the last five years trying to atone for it."

Harper let out a vicious, barking laugh.

"Atone? The woman she put in a coma for five years is Margot. If she wanted to atone, she should have been kneeling by Margot’s hospital bed! Not clinging to your firm like a parasite, using her 'guilt' as an excuse to shadow you 24/7. Not playing your devoted little assistant, bringing you coffee and making sure you eat!"

Harper took a step forward, her voice dripping with disgust. "You kept telling us how much you hated her, Preston. How you were going to make her life a living hell. Well? Have you repeated your own bullshit so many times that you actually believe it?"

The dinner imploded. I hugged Harper tightly, whispering apologies into her shoulder before we left.

On the drive back, Preston drove erratically, his mind clearly somewhere else. He almost rear-ended a cab.

His phone kept lighting up in the cup holder. He picked it up, set it down, picked it up again. Finally, his finger "accidentally" swiped the screen, and Lily’s voice filled the car via Bluetooth. She was hyperventilating, sobbing uncontrollably.

"I know she's back! I know I have to leave! But it’s not fair, Preston. All I did was love you. Why does it have to hurt this much?"

"If I had been the one crushed under that metal five years ago, would you have even remembered me?"

"Maybe this was all a mistake. I should have just died in that accident instead of her."

Preston slammed on the brakes. The screech of the tires made my chest seize.

His face was ashen, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. He turned to me, agonizingly torn.

"She got humiliated at the office today, and with Harper... I'm terrified she might actually do something to herself..."

I felt the blood drain from my face. I forced the corners of my mouth up into a broken smile.

"Go. It's a matter of life and death, right?"

Preston let out a breath like he was suffocating. He pulled over, unlocked the doors to let me out on the street corner, and sped off into the night.

I hailed a taxi and gave the driver the address to the city cemetery.

My father and Preston’s mother, Mrs. Cole, smiled back at me from the porcelain photos on their gravestones.

Preston and I grew up next door to each other in a working-class neighborhood. Ten years ago, when the great earthquake ripped through our town, our apartment building collapsed. My dad and his mom had used their bodies to shield us, holding the crushing weight of the ceiling up just long enough for the rescue crews to pull us out. They never made it.

Preston had refused to cry at the funeral. He just held me so tightly my ribs ached, whispering over and over, "From now on, Margot, we're the only family we have left. I'll never leave you."

I sat on the cold grass, pulling my coat tight against the wind, and started talking to them.

"It's been a while, Dad. Mrs. Cole. Don't be mad at me for not visiting. I had a good excuse, I promise."

The night wind whipped around the headstones. Suddenly, my cheeks felt freezing.

I reached up and realized my face was entirely wet.

Only the wind was there to hear my whisper.

"What do I do, Dad? I don't think I have a home anymore."