Chapter Sixteen

Gaius Castillo was finally back home after nearly two weeks of being hospitalized, and he was returning a totally different man from what he had been before. He looked frail and tired, bedridden as he was, and when he wasn't, he was restricted to a wheelchair. He seemed to have aged more than a few decades in the last week.

Although he had only suffered a partial stroke on the left side, he was still barely able to move the functioning parts of his limbs, and he could only manage to utter a few words at a time, and they were mostly undecipherable at that. The talking tired him out faster than anything else, so Dante encouraged him to speak less by trying to preempt his needs and restricting visitation calls. His caretakers were also always available and on-hand to meet his needs and eradicate any difficulty.

The doctor had said Gaius was strong and making good progress. But if this was progress, then Dante didn't want to know what retrogression felt like.

Although Gaius had visibly