Nathan opened the hospital room door silently. The room lay in shadows, lit only by the thin spill of hallway light through the crack in the door and the pale moonlight filtering in from the window.

She was there. Tessa. Asleep.

Her breathing was steady and light. Her pink lips were slightly parted, a strand of blonde hair resting against her cheek. For one brief moment, everything else vanished from Nathan’s mind. Charles. Robert. The betrayal. All of it disappeared. There was only ...