Chapter 159: Grief Never Leaves Quietly

Chapter 159: Grief Never Leaves Quietly

Sometimes death doesn’t come from strangers in the dark.

Sometimes it slips in through the cracks left by the very people who should’ve stopped it.

The guards who weren’t at their post.

The friends who once left a girl bleeding on the highway.

Me, frozen when I should’ve stopped the killer.

That’s how Liam Everhart died.

It wasn’t just one moment that killed him.

It was all of us.

Every failure, every hesitation, every time we chose fear instead of action.

That’s what took Liam Everhart’s life.

Not fate. Not chance.

But us.

The beeping stopped. The monitor went flat. And in that second, the world went silent.

I saw it first in Dominic’s eyes. God. He looked broken in a way I’d never seen before...like his body was still standing, but his soul had dropped somewhere I couldn’t reach.

"He’s gone," I whispered. The words broke me as soon as I said them.

Dom snapped his head at me, his whole body kept shaking, his eyes were red. His lips trembled before he shook his head. "No. You’re wrong. You don’t know what you’re saying."

Denial.

I knew the stage when I saw it. I’d lived it before.

"He’s probably still in a coma," his hands clawed at his hair. "I can feel it. He’ll wake up." His voice cracked into a yell. "Liam, please! Wake up!"

I grabbed his hands before he ripped his hair apart. "Dom..."

I know grief. It’s not clean. It claws at you in stages...

Then Liam’s parents came. And I’ll never forget their faces. The way his mother stumbled forward. That kind of pain that’s too sharp to name. The kind that only comes when you’re watching your child slip away. And Liam was their only one.

"My son!" she screamed, trying to push past the nurse barring the door. "That’s my son in there! He’s not dead. He’s not dead! Check him again! Please, he’s still in a coma, he’s still alive!" Her voice shattered into sobs.

Her husband didn’t say a word. He just stared through the glass, he had that blank expression as tears welled up in his eyes.

I stepped back down the hallway, holding my chest.

And all I could think was....I’ve seen this before.

I saw it when my father came home in a coffin draped in a flag. When neighbors lined our street, and my mother collapsed on the porch, screaming that he wasn’t dead.

Even at his burial, she clung to the coffin like if she held tight enough, they wouldn’t lower it into the ground. I remember her face. The denial. The anger. The endless months where she was swallowed by grief until she could barely speak.

And now here it was again, playing out right in front of me.

My throat burned. My chest hurt. I couldn’t breathe. I kept holding it, like maybe I could stop the spiral if I held hard enough. But I couldn’t. It was happening all over again.

The sound of shouting dragged me back.

Dom.

"Where the hell were you?" he roared at the guards. His fists clenched. "You were supposed to be here! Someone walked into his room! Where the fuck were you?"

"Calm down, Mr. Vale," one of them said, defensive. "We aren’t the cause of..."

"The cause?" Dom spat the word.

"Don’t tell me to calm down! If you’d done your fucking jobs, my best friend would still be alive!"

I grabbed his arm before he could lunge, holding on tight even though he was trembling like he might break free. My hands shook against him. "Dom, stop, please.."

But he wasn’t listening. "If they had been there, if they hadn’t left their post. He’d still be alive!"

Behind us, chaos blurred. Ian pulling Mrs. Everhart into a hug before she collapsed, Ren and the twins catching Liam’s dad before his knees buckled. The whole hallway was a storm of grief, like it was swallowing all of us whole.

This is it. This is what loss feels like. It doesn’t just steal one person... it steals everyone.

I pressed my forehead to Dom’s shoulder, whispering even though my voice cracked. "Dom... it was planned. Perfectly planned. Even if the guards were here, even if they didn’t blink... they wanted this to happen. Nobody thought a boy in a coma could still be murdered in a hospital bed."

He shook under me. "Omgg. You’re right! We’re the only ones who knows the truth," he whispered, and the words nearly broke me.

I raised his head, as something shifted in his expression.

The anger drained out, leaving nothing but desperation. His hands fisted in his hair again, his voice cracked as he looked toward the ceiling like someone might actually hear him.

His voice wasn’t loud anymore.

"Just... give him back."

"Please. Just five more minutes. That’s all I’m asking. Five. I don’t care how. I don’t care what it costs. Just let me say goodbye. Let me tell him I’m sorry I couldn’t protect him."

He sniffled. "Don’t take him before I get to say it."

His shoulders shook violently. He sounded less like a boy my age and more like a child begging. Except this was his best friend, his brother, his whole world... it tore through me.

"Dom..." My throat burned raw as I gripped his hands, pulling them down before he could hurt himself again. "You don’t need five more minutes. He knew. Liam knew how much you loved him."

But Dom shook his head, tears dropped onto the hospital marble floor.

"He doesn’t deserve this. Ash. He’s my brother. He’s the good one. The one who kept me alive when I didn’t care if I lived. He never let me fall apart, not once. And I let him go." His lips trembled so bad he could barely form words. "I don’t know how to breathe without him."

I held him tighter, tears started slipping fast down my cheeks too. My chest hurt so bad it felt like something inside me was tearing open.

Mrs. Everhart’s sobs echoed down the hall. Mr. Everhart stood silent, pale, like the life had drained out of him too. The twins were frozen against the wall. Ren kept whispering something I couldn’t hear.

And me?

I just held Dominic. Because it was all I could do.

Because when grief swallowed you whole, there was no right thing to say, no perfect thing to do. You just held on to whatever pieces you have left.