جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 68

~~~Soraya~~~It's been seven days since Declan's father came, and Declan hasn't left my side once.He booked a suite at the hotel two blocks from the hospital, fourteen days, paid up front, like he'd already decided before he even checked in that he wasn't going anywhere until I was steady enough to stand on my own two feet again. He shows up every morning before visiting hours technically start, some arrangement with the nurses I'm fairly sure involves an unreasonable amount of charm, and he doesn't leave until they physically make him.Today he brought coffee from the place down the street, the good kind, not the hospital sludge that's been keeping Maya alive on caffeine fumes for over a week now. He set it on my tray table and dropped into the chair beside my bed like it was the most natural thing in the world, like this had always been our routine and not something we'd rebuilt out of six weeks of silence and a hospital room full of grief."You look better today," he said, studyin

~~~Soraya~~~Physical therapy started that morning, my first real session since the surgery, and it turned out to be its own particular kind of misery. The therapist had me doing small, careful movements with my leg, nothing dramatic, but every single one of them ached in a way that made me grit my teeth and stare hard at the ceiling until it passed."You're doing great," she said, adjusting the angle of my knee slightly. "Better range of motion than I expected this early.""Feels like the opposite of great," I muttered, and she laughed, unbothered, clearly used to patients who complained through every single rep.Maya sat in the corner the entire session, scrolling through something on her phone, occasionally looking up to wince sympathetically whenever I made a particularly pained noise. Caleb showed up halfway through with coffee for both of them, setting Maya's down on the little table beside her without a word, the way he'd started doing so often now that it barely registered as a

~~~Soraya~~~We found Riley at her usual table near the back of the dining hall, tray untouched in front of her, scrolling through her phone like the entire campus wasn't currently on fire because of her."We need to talk," Declan said, stopping directly across from her, arms crossed.Riley looked up slowly, one eyebrow lifting at the sight of the three of us me on crutches, Declan tense as a livewire, Caleb hovering a step behind like he was bracing for something to go sideways fast."Oh wow." She set her phone down, unbothered. "The whole squad. What'd I do this time?""Cut the act," I said, my voice sharper than I meant it to come out. "We know it's you. The account. The rumor.""What rumor?" She said eyeing me from top to bottom."Don't," My hands tightened around the crutch grips. "The photo on the account header. It's the same one you used to post constantly last year. Same angle of the rink, same everything."Something flickered across Riley's face, confusion instead of the gui

~~~Soraya~~~Declan's plane had been in the air for exactly forty minutes when my phone buzzed for the first time.Unknown number.‘Wonder how long it takes him to disappear again this time.’My stomach dropped straight through the airport floor. Maya's arm tightened around my shoulders, and I realized she'd read it over my shoulder at the exact same second I had."Ignore it," she said, though her voice had gone tight and careful. "Whoever this is, as usual they want a reaction. Don't give into it."I shoved the phone into my bag and let Caleb steer us toward the exit, the fluorescent airport lights blurring past as my mind raced through everything I refused to let myself think about too closely. Whoever was doing this had known, almost immediately, that Declan was gone. That kind of timing wasn't luck. That kind of timing meant somebody was watching close enough to know exactly when I'd be alone.We got back to campus a little before dark. Maya insisted on walking me straight to my d