ARIA
"Good. You need to talk to him anyway. And Aria?" Paige hugs me tight. "Life's too short to run from the people you love. Even when they're scary and complicated, they sometimes make terrible decisions. Trust me on this."
Katya is waiting outside...she's been there the whole time, I realize, silently keeping watch.
"Mount Sinai," I tell her. "Please hurry."
The drive takes fifteen minutes. I spent the time trying to figure out what to say to Dante. How to explain that I'm not running away, just terrified of what loving him means.
How to tell him that I see him...all of him...and I'm choosing to stay anyway.
If it's not too late.
The hospital is quiet at night. I navigate to Isabelle's room with a sense of dread.
Dante is there, sitting beside his mother's bed, holding her hand
