Chapter 56

• Leila
• Recovery was a dull hum - nurses checking vitals at odd hours, the beep of machines that measured my heartbeat like it was a task, not a gift. Simple, they'd called it. Monotonous, I'd learned.
• Darren and Cassius took turns. Darren brought books, thick things with dog-eared pages that he'd read aloud in a voice that rumbled like distant thunder, even when the words were about stocks or ancient wars. Cassius brought coffee, black and bitter, and sat by the window, watching the clouds drift past like he was cataloging their shapes for later. They rarely left. Even when one stepped out to stretch or take a call, the other stayed, a silent sentinel. It was suffocating, in a way. But safer than being alone.