LEO'S POV
The silence of my office was oppressive, a constant reminder of my failures and self disappointment. I leaned back in my chair, staring up blankly at the ceiling as the events of last night replayed in my mind. Isabel’s words echoed over and over again in my head: “You should have left me to die.”
My chest tightened each time at the memory. I had done that to her—dragged her into this mess, destroyed her in ways that she no longer thought life worth living. And yet even on top of all of that, I'd gone and marked her without her consent, binding her to me in ways I hadn’t fully thought through. I’d spent the entire night outside her hospital room, unable to leave, unable to rest or sleep. Hearing her despair, her tears, had cut through me, sharper than any blade. At that point I
