LOGINKillian’s POV“...which means if we reallocate the remaining Q3 budget toward the secondary logistics vendors, we can offset the delay by at least two weeks.”The voice floated somewhere across the dark polished oak of the conference table, muffled and distant, as if coming through several feet of water.I sat with my hands folded over the unopened blue leather folder in front of me, staring fixedly at a stray pen mark near the base of the water pitcher.I hadn't read a single line of the briefing memo. I hadn't absorbed a single figure thrown around the room for the last forty-five minutes. My mind wasn't in this boardroom. It was stuck in the hospital emergency corridor; stuck on the memory of the absolute, bone-chilling weightlessness of Elena’s body when she went limp in my arms.I hadn't seen her since I practically dragged her into the back of that ambulance and followed it straight to the ER.I remembered Vivian cornering me in the hallway that night, and indirectly asking why
Vivian’s eyes followed my gesture, landing on the large vase of deep, velvety white roses resting on the windowsill.She went still.Slowly, Vivian rose from the chair. She walked over to the window, her silk coat swishing softly against her legs. She stood before the flowers for a long moment, studying them in silence. Her hand reached out, her long, manicured index finger reaching out to lightly touch the edge of a single, immaculate petal.She didn't speak right away. Her eyes flicked down to the small, stiff cream card tucked into the stem wire—the one bearing Killian’s neat, concise handwriting.A tiny, bitter smile touched the corner of her lips.“That’s thoughtful,” she murmured softly, her voice flat, stripped of the sugary warmth she’d been using moments before. She didn't read the card aloud. She just let her finger brush the petal once more before turning back around to face me, her social mask snapping back into place so fast it was almost impressive. “He always was attent
Serena’s POVVivian stood in the doorway, dressed impeccably in a cream-colored silk trench coat that looked like it belonged on a Paris runway rather than a hospital corridor. She was holding a large, artfully arranged basket of exotic fruits, draped in sheer tulle and tied with a velvet ribbon.For a second, I just stared. It was almost surreal—Chloe had been talking about her barely two hours ago, and now here she was, standing in the flesh, looking every bit the picture of refined, high-society grace.“Elena,” Vivian said, her voice dripping with warm, practiced sympathy. She stepped into the room, her heels clicking softly against the linoleum. “Oh, sweetie. Look at you.”“Vivian,” I said, forcing a faint, polite smile to my lips as I shifted higher against the pillows. “I… I wasn't expecting you.”“I know, I know,” she said quickly, walking over to set the elaborate fruit basket on the small bedside table, right next to Chloe’s half-empty plastic bag of marshmallows. She cast a
Serena’s POVInstead, she leaned back slightly, her brows knitting together as she searched through her memory. Her gaze drifted somewhere over my shoulder, as though she were replaying old conversations one by one. “Not… really,” she said after a long moment, “You weren’t the kind of person who was always sick.”Without meaning to, I let out the breath I’d been holding.Some of the tension eased from my shoulders.“But…”The single word tightened every muscle in my body again.“You did complain about headaches.”I frowned.“Headaches?”She nodded.“Pretty nasty ones, actually.”She reached over to set her coffee on the bedside table before turning back to me.“They’d come out of nowhere. One minute you’d be completely fine, laughing at something or buried in work, and the next you’d have both hands pressed against your temples like somebody was trying to split your skull open from the inside.”She pointed at me with a knowing look.“And don’t even get me started on how unbelievably
Serena's POV Girl, never give me a heart attack like that again.”Chloe threw her arms around me so tightly the force of it almost knocked the breath from my lungs. Her face disappeared against the side of my neck, her embrace fierce enough to make my ribs protest. For the briefest second, I simply sat there, caught off guard by the gesture. Then instinct took over.I wrapped my arms around her and held her just as tightly, only to realize she was trembling.Not shivering.Actually trembling.In all the time I’d spent as Elena, Chloe had never been a crier. She was the one who laughed first, joked through disasters, fixed her lipstick after every crisis, and somehow convinced everyone else that things would work out. She was sunshine wrapped in expensive perfume and impossible confidence.But now her shoulders shook beneath my hands.She pulled away so suddenly it almost gave me whiplash, immediately dragging both palms across her face before any tears had the chance to ruin her mak
Serena’s POVI’d convinced myself my dizzy spells were reminders that my existence in Elena’s body was temporary; that no borrowed life could last forever, and sooner or later, these were signs that the body was rejecting the soul that didn’t belong inside it.But what if…What if I’d been wrong all along?What if this body was simply sick?“Sometimes,” I admitted to the doctor, my voice barely audible.Dominic’s hand tightened around mine almost immediately. He leaned forward, concern washing over his face as his brows drew together.“Sometimes?” he repeated, clearly caught off guard. “Elena… you never told me that.” His voice softened, hurt slipping into the edges of it. “Why didn’t you say anything?”I lowered my eyes to the blanket spread across my lap, unable to meet his gaze.“I… I honestly thought it was just stress,” I admitted. “I didn’t think it was serious enough to worry anyone. I figured it would pass.”Dr. Harrison made a few notes on his tablet before looking up again.“
Serena’s POV“I just want to say for the record,” Chloe said from the bed, watching me step into my heels, “that the Elena I know would rather eat glass than attend a work gala.”“People change.”“You keep saying that.” She sat up and crossed her legs. “Before the accident you wouldn’t even work at
Serena’s POVThe first thing I noticed was the ceiling.White. Smooth. A water stain in the far left corner shaped like nothing in particular. I stared at it for a long time before I understood that I was staring at it, that my eyes were open, that I was somewhere.I turned my head.Machines. Tubes
Killian’s POVThe gala was still going.That was the part that didn’t make sense. Three hundred people still laughing, still drinking, still moving through a room that felt completely different to me now, like a house after a fire where everything looks the same but nothing is. The music was still
Serena’s POV“You really outdid yourself this time, Serena. I have attended every Rhodes event for the past three years and this is by far the best one yet.”I smiled at David Chen, Rhodes CFO and head of partnerships, and raised my glass. “Three months of planning. Every detail matters.”“Three mo







