Chapter ninety three

It had been six months since that night six long, aching months since the sound of the gunshot shattered their peace and Adrian’s life hung between this world and another.

The hospital days had crawled like years. Gabriel remembered them in fragments the sterile smell of antiseptic, the quiet hiss of oxygen, the way machines hummed in rhythm to Adrian’s shallow breaths. There were nights when Gabriel would sit by his bedside and whisper things he was afraid Adrian would never hear: promises, prayers, apologies. And yet, somehow, Adrian came back to him slowly, painfully, like a man clawing his way out of the dark.

Now, months later, Adrian was finally himself again thinner, paler perhaps, but alive. The nightmares had eased, the cane was only for balance now, and his laugh… that deep, quiet sound that had once vanished from their lives, had returned.

It was this laughter at first..genuine laugh that made Gabriel realize it was time to celebrate. Not with the pomp of a gala or the fo