All Chapters of Bound by Blood : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

**DANTE’S POV**“She’s back.”Sofia’s voice cut through the room the second the monitor came alive.A single beep followed.Then another.It wasn’t strong, but it was there. Real. Present.For a moment, no one spoke. No one moved. The silence that had filled the room just seconds ago broke apart like glass.“Hold her,” Sofia said immediately.That snapped everything into motion.Nurses moved in fast, surrounding the bed, checking lines, adjusting equipment, calling out readings in low, steady voices. The chaos returned, but it was controlled now. Directed.I stepped forward without thinking.No one stopped me this time.“Elara,” I said.Her body reacted before her mind did. A small jerk against the bed, like she was trying to pull herself back from somewhere deep and heavy.Her lips moved.“No…”It was faint. Broken. But it was her voice.I froze for half a second.“She’s responding,” one of the nurses said.Sofia didn’t look away from the monitor.“Keep her stable,” she ordered.I mo

## **DANTE’S POV**The sound downstairs didn’t just carry through the hospital.It ripped through it.Chloe’s scream hit again, sharper this time, like something inside her had finally cracked open and wouldn’t close.“Dad!”Elara stiffened beside me instantly. Her fingers tightened around mine so hard I felt it in my bones.Sofia was already moving toward the door.“Stay here,” she said quickly, but none of us listened.Because something about that kind of scream doesn’t let people stay put.We stepped into the hallway and the hospital changed in front of us.What had been controlled panic upstairs had become full collapse downstairs.Footsteps everywhere.Doors slamming.Voices overlapping until nothing made sense anymore.Then the smell hit.His Blood was everywhere.We reached the lobby and everything stopped feeling real.Daniel was on the floor.Blood spread beneath him like it had been given permission to take over the room.The gun lay a few feet away, untouched now, almost fo

# **ELARA’S POV**The apartment didn’t feel like an apartment anymore.It felt like silence had survived a war.I sat on the edge of the couch, phone still glowing in my hand, Chloe’s image frozen on the last frame of the video.Her smile stayed in place even after I stopped the screen.I didn’t move for a while.Then I swiped.Matteo.My brother.I stared at the name.Something in my chest shifted.I pressed call.Ring.No answer.I tried again.Ring.Still nothing.My fingers tightened.“Answer,” I said under my breath.Again.Nothing.Again.Nothing.I stood up suddenly.“No…”I tried again, walking now.Still nothing.I stopped.The silence on the line didn’t feel normal anymore.It felt blocked.Like something was standing between me and him.The door opened.Sophie walked in with grocery bags and placed them on the counter.“You’ve been sitting there for twenty minutes.”I didn’t look at her.“Elara.”“I heard you.”“Then respond.”I turned slowly.“I need to call my brother. Th

ELARA'S POVI remained seated on the edge of the bed long after waking up, unable to shake the feeling that something wasn't right.The dream should have faded the moment I opened my eyes.Instead, it lingered.Every detail remained painfully clear in my mind, replaying itself over and over again no matter how hard I tried to focus on something on.I could still hear the rain striking the metal roof. I could still see the dim light reflecting against the wet concrete floor. Most of all, I could still see my father's face.The fear in his eyes haunted me.It felt wrong.My father had never been afraid of anything.At least, not in the memories I could remember.He had always been the person who made me feel safe. The person who convinced me that no matter how bad things became, everything would eventually be okay.Yet the man I had seen in that dream wasn't calm.As though he knew something terrible was coming and there was nothing he could do to stop it.A shiver ran through me.The mo

(Elaras pov)It started with the sound in the corridor behind a soft, uneven rhythm that did not belong in a place like this. Footsteps, maybe. Or something trying too hard to sound like footsteps. My body reacted before my mind could even decide what I was hearing. My shoulders tightened without warning, and my breath suddenly felt too loud in my own ears.I did not turn around immediately.I should have.But I didn’t.Because there are moments when your body understands danger before your thoughts are willing to accept it, and I was stuck in that delay, suspended between refusal and recognition.Dante was still looking at me.That was what I noticed first when I finally forced my eyes to move.Not the guards.Not Sofia.Him.And there was something in his expression now that did not belong to the version of him I had slowly learned to live beside. It wasn’t panic in the way I understood panic. It was something quieter, more contained, as if he had just realized he had lost a few se