THE HOSPITAL
4:23 PM — Metropolitan Hospital, Emergency Department
The ambulance arrived with sirens screaming.
Aria was on a stretcher, paramedics running alongside her, one keeping pressure on the wound while another had an oxygen mask over her face. She was unconscious. Her white dress the dress that had been so beautiful was now soaked with blood, barely recognizable as the garment it had been three minutes ago.
The trauma team was waiting.
They’d been called ahead, notified that a gunshot victim was coming in, priority level critical. Entering from the side, not the main emergency entrance. Away from where the media was already starting to gather, sensing a story.
Dante followed the stretcher through the doors.
He was still in his wedding suit. His hands were covered in Aria’s
