Chapter Thirty-Four
Laila’s POV
The urge to run was like an itch beneath my skin, scratching at my bones until I couldn't stay in that bed for another second.
The moment the heavy door clicked shut behind Leo, the artificial silence of the hospital room pressed down on me like a ton of lead. The rhythmic, fragile breathing of my mother behind the thin blue curtain sounded like an hourglass slowly running out of sand. Every grain of glass dropping was a second closer to Monday—closer to the day my brother signed away the only thing our father had left behind, closer to Rico coming to collect his pound of flesh.
I threw off the thin hospital blanket.
A sharp, searing spike of pain shot through both of my palms as my fingers caught on the stiff cotton sheets. I gasped, gritting my teeth
