**Stefano’s POV**

The car had been waiting downstairs for five days. I hadn't touched it. I hadn't gone home. I couldn't bring myself to walk away from the door to her room, as if my presence alone were the only thing keeping oxygen flowing into her lungs.

Five days passed, and I stayed right here, in this hospital that smelled of disinfectant and sadness, sitting beside her bed as machines hummed. Five days of watching her chest rise and fall. Five days of waiting for something as simple as ...