PART 2

I woke to the smell of a hospital—disinfectant, clean sheets, and the metallic tang of my own blood. My right eye opened. My left was buried under thick bandages.

A doctor in a white coat leaned over me. “I’m Dr. Alison Curtis. You’re safe now, Sadie.”

Safe was a word that felt completely foreign in my mouth.

“Wyatt…”

“He hasn’t left the hospital since you arrived.”

He appeared beside the bed at once, his shirt still stained with my blood, his knuckles scraped raw, his eyes red. When he took my hand, he started to cry.