Elle’s POV
The hospital ceiling was too white, too plain, and too still. The rhythmic beep of the heart monitor offered little comfort, just another reminder that time was passing, but answers were not coming. I shifted in bed, wincing as the dull pain in my leg made itself known again. The painkillers numbed most of it, but not enough to make me forget the weight pressing down on my chest.
Mason had been with me every moment since I woke up—always attentive, always calm—but there was something in his eyes, something that told me not everything was as it seemed. He was protecting me, but I wasn’t sure it was from danger alone. It felt like he was shielding me from the truth.
He was always at my side, but not always present. I’d noticed the way he tensed every time his phone buzzed, the
