Chapter 338

• VALENTINA
• ~•~
• The words hung between us like smoke after a fire—thick, choking, impossible to ignore. Gustavo’s hand was still clasped in mine, his palm cold and slick with sweat and blood, but his eyes burned with that familiar intensity. The vault’s emergency lights cast harsh shadows across his face, highlighting every cut, every bruise, every line of exhaustion etched there by the night’s horrors. I knelt beside the medical cot, one hand still resting protectively over my belly where our baby had finally quieted, as if even the little one was holding its breath.