The air in Maria Isiah’s South Side home was thick with tension, the cozy warmth of the living room—where Ethan slept on the couch, his stuffed dinosaur clutched tight—marred by the shadow Sayrn and Mia had glimpsed outside. Sayrn Sauns, at twenty-eight with her RN degree earned earlier this year, stood by the window, her chestnut hair pulled back, her navy sweater a shield against the chill of both the night and her own spiraling emotions. The confirmation of Ethan’s paternity, her fainting spell, and Varga’s escalating threat—“The nurse is next”—had cracked something inside her. The Velvet Contract, her bond with Daniel Isiah, felt strained, the weight of his past and the danger of his world pressing down.
Mia Torres, her dark curls framing a worried face, stood beside her, her red jack
