**Elena’s POV**
I awoke with a start as the bedroom door groaned open. I wasn't a heavy sleeper anymore; every creak of the floorboards, every shift of the wind against the glass, sent my heart into my throat.
It had been three days.
Three days since Dante dragged me through that dark parking lot. Three days since I felt the cold bite of his knife against my skin. Since then, Stefano had been a shadow that never left my side.
He was there when I slept, there when I woke. There when I showered, when I paced, when I stared out the window too long. If I shifted, he noticed. If I flinched, his jaw tightened. He hovered as if the world might snatch me away the second he turned his back.
But I knew why. I guess the guilt was eating him alive because he hadn't been there to stop Dante.
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