I woke to the sharp sterile stench of antiseptic and the faint beeping of monitors. My eyelids felt like lead, and each breath I took sent a dull ache through my ribs. I blinked against the harsh white light, trying to piece together the fragments of my last memory—the searing pain, the warmth of Hattie above me, the world slipping away.
I was in a hospital room. Machines surrounded me, tubes tethering me to life. My chest felt tight, but the agony that had consumed me before was now distant, a ghost of its former self. Confusion clouded my mind. Was I... alive?
I turned my head slowly, every muscle protesting. My mother, Adrianna, sat beside me, her hand wrapped around mine, her eyes red and swollen from tears. Beside her, Natalie stood, hands clasped to her chest, relief flooding her f
