Ethan’s POV

The corridors of the hospital still smelled of smoke and disinfectant from the chaos of the bombing.

Soldiers stood at every door, rifles slung over their shoulders, their boots echoing against the marble. Outside, sirens wailed and then faded, never fully gone.

Inside, I refused to leave her.

Katelyn lay pale beneath the sheets, her head wrapped, her chest rising and falling in shallow rhythm. The scans had shown bleeding inside her brain.

The doctors’ words replayed in my ...