OLIVIA’S POV
The receptionist recognized me before I reached the desk.
She looked up from her screen and her face opened with the particular warmth of someone who had been expecting you and was glad you made it. She gestured us through without requiring me to explain anything and I was more grateful for that small mercy than I could have articulated.
The ward corridor smelled the same as every time I had come here. Clean and cool and carrying that specific hospital quality that I had stopped flinching at weeks ago. I know these floors now. I knew which turn led where and how many steps it took to reach my father’s room from the elevator.
I had spent enough hours here to know it the way you knew places that had held something important.
Jaden’s hand found my back as we walked.
I regi
