Pepper froze with her mouth left slightly open and her eyes locked on him. The glass hovered halfway to her lips, completely forgotten, while her gaze remained fixed and stunned, an endless blue that seemed to look straight through him. Her lower lip trembled for a second before she managed to speak. When she finally did, the sound that came out was faint, like a strangled whisper. She shook her head.
A frown creased between her slender brows as she set the glass down with a hard click.
“No,” she scoffed softly, still in shock. “Tony, you can’t just go back to—” she had almost said ‘to her’, but swallowed the word. “—to this life and tell me you only have eleven months left to live. No.”
She took another step toward him, as if checking to see if he was real after all.
“Please tell me this is one of your dark jokes.”
Her eyes searched his desperately for the truth, but inside, her stomach twisted in on itself, tightening into painful knots because she already knew it was real.