Aria

It had been three days.

Three days of endless nurses checking Jaicy’s charts. Three days of sitting on the edge, running on energy I could pull and autopilot.

And now, finally, she was looking more like the sister I remembered.

The psychiatrists had cleared her for stable cognition, but she still had to be observed. After what she’d been through, we all needed that reassurance.

I didn’t mind. I wasn’t leaving her side.

Not yet.

Not until the world outside felt real again.

I ...