The recovery room had become a makeshift salon.Sienna lay in the bed, pale but upright, her hand resting on the cooling unit that Marcus had brought in to soothe her incision. Marcus sat on the edge of the mattress, feeding her ice chips one by one.Around them, the "Fortress" had gathered.Noah stood by the window, holding Liam. Julian sat in the corner, reading a story to Lila and Emma, doing voices that made the girls giggle uncontrollably.Claire was sketching again, capturing the way Marcus looked at Sienna with a reverence usually reserved for religious icons."She's stable," Marcus said, checking his phone for the NICU update. "O2 saturation is 98%. She digested two milliliters of milk.""Two milliliters," Sienna whispered. "She's a glutton.""She's a fighter," Noah corrected. "Like her mother."It was a warm scene. A scene of people who had chosen each other, bound not by obligation but by the shared scars of survival. Aria stood at the foot of the bed, feeling a profound, qu
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