Storm-Worn Hearts
Dawson’s fingers clenched around the sheet.
“Mia,” he said again, my name like a rope thrown in a flood.
“I’m here,” I told him, softer. “Stay with me.”
His gaze sharpened, then so briefly I could’ve imagined it, his shoulders eased by a fraction, as if my voice had found a place in him that still remembered safety.
The CT didn’t take long to confirm what my gut already knew: an old retained foreign body, bullet fragments, had likely seeded an abscess. Infection had been simmering, patient ignoring symptoms until the pot boiled over.