Chapter 77

Darkness shrouded us. Our breaths echoed each other.

I closed my eyes and spoke quietly. “Your father used to wonder what you’d do when you came to the edge.” I raked my fingers through his silky hair. “Did you find it, Nick? Did you find the edge?” I felt his wounds under my very palms. These invisible scars on his heart that had been hardened by time.

“No,” he said in a choked voice. “It was the edge that found me.”

I knew he was talking about David. About his terrible and premature death. Lene had told me how David had died. It was AIDS related. He’d suffered a lot. Had died almost blind, his body covered with painful lesions.

“Nick, you couldn’t have saved him,” I said carefully, knowing that I was stepping on thin ice.

He clutched my shoulder. “Don’t.”

“Nick—”

“God, I cheated and I lied.”

“David’s death is not your fault.”

Nick’s body stiffened against mine. “I fucking killed him.” He was shaking against me. “Oh, God,” he moaned. “I killed him.”