Chapter 47

CASSANDRA'S POV~

Everything went silent.

I’m talking graveyard silent.

The kind of silence that presses down on your ears and wraps around your chest like a steel wire. No one moved. No one even dared to breathe too loudly. Nurses exchanged nervous glances. A few took cautious steps back, eyes darting to the floor like maybe if they didn’t make eye contact, they could disappear.

The bleeding man on the floor let out a soft, pained moan—barely audible. It was enough to make the silence even more deafening.

Then, the click of the gun being cocked echoed like a gunshot itself.

Gasps erupted all around me. A few nurses whimpered. One covered her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut.

He was losing patience.

And yet still… no one moved. No one stepped forward.

So I did.

I don’t know if it was courage or stupidity—or maybe just the fact that I knew if I didn’t move, someone else would die.

I stepped out from the crowd. My heart was pounding so loud I could hear it in my ears, but I for