AIDEN'S POV
The world stopped.
I must have misheard her.
I blinked at the nurse, waiting for her to correct herself, waiting for her to say something—anything—that made sense. But she didn’t.
"Your mother—she’s… she’s dead."
No.
The hospital room suddenly felt too small, too suffocating. The beeping monitors, the low hum of voices from the hallway, the sterile scent of antiseptic all faded into static. My pulse thundered in my ears, drowning everything out.
"Dead?"
The word barely left my lips. It didn’t sound like me, like my voice. It sounded like someone else—someone far away, someone detached from the moment, because this couldn’t be happening.
The nurse nodded hesitantly, gripping the clipboard in her hands like she needed it to steady herself. "I… I’m so sorry, Mr. Scott. It
