“Sophia POV”

I jolted upright, my neck aching from hours curled in the chair. My hand was still tangled with Lucian’s, my thumb brushing the pulse at his wrist like I could keep him tethered to me.

The monitors hummed steady beside me, their blinking lights keeping time with the uneven rhythm of his breathing. I blinked blearily, expecting a nurse. Maybe a doctor.

But the figure framed in the doorway was no nurse.

A woman stepped into the room, tall and perfectly put together, as though ...