Chapter 139

Ellie POV

The days blur together in the hospital room.

Morning light, afternoon light, evening dimness. Healers coming and going. The same questions asked in different voices. The same careful hands adjusting blankets, checking vitals, murmuring reassurances they don’t quite believe themselves.

Turns out, I can’t leave. I can’t do much of anything without Dominic…which is kinda the worst thing to ever happen to me.

Sarah comes often with flowers, bright ones, like she’s trying to bring any type of life back into the room. She talks about school, about gossip I don’t have the energy to care about, about teachers who keep asking when I’ll be back. I smile in the right places. I even laugh once. It exhausts me.

My family comes too. My mother sits close, always too close, her fingers tight around mine like she’s afraid I’m close to death.

Who knows. I could be.

My stepfather stays near the door, pacing, muttering about healers and incompetence and how this never would have happened if peo