Chapter 225: Memory of the Storm
Jacob~
The moment the words left my mouth—"I can take the memory away"—I saw her change.
Easter flinched like I’d struck her.
"No," she breathed, her voice hoarse and shaking, but there was steel behind it. "No, Jacob. Don’t you dare."
Her eyes—those wide, emerald eyes that always reminded me of spring after a long winter—were burning now, wild with pain and defiance. She sat up, wrapping her arms around herself as if to shield her soul from me.
"Easter—" I started.
She shook her head, curls bouncing around her flushed face. "No. Jacob, listen to me. Please—just listen."
I held my breath.
"I know I’m not... strong like Natalie. I know I cry too much, and I break down, and I can barely keep it together when Rose so much as sneezes." She laughed, bitterly, tears already running down her cheeks. "I know the memories of that horrible incident has left me even weaker. But those memories—those horrible, awful memories—they’re all I have left of you. Of Natalie, Tiger, Alex, all of you who saved me. If you take them... you’re not just erasing the bad."
Her voice cracked, and she gripped the edge of the blanket so tightly her knuckles went white. "You’d be taking away Natalie, Tiger... You’d be taking away Jacob. And I don’t want to lose you. I can’t."
I closed my eyes. Gods, that hurt. The raw honesty, the pain—I could feel it like claws scraping across my chest.