- Aria -
Sitting in that hospital waiting room felt like an eternity crammed into a narrow sliver of time. Every tick of the clock echoed around me, reminding me of the seconds slipping through my fingers like sand. I had been staring at the beige walls for what felt like hours, but reality was like a frozen river – still, yet teeming with an undercurrent of chaos. My mind was a whirlwind of disbelief and desperate hope, battling against the monstrous reality that Sean might not come back to us, might be… truly gone.
"Aria?" Jamie's soft voice cut through the stillness, pulling me from the depths of my frantic thoughts. I turned to face him, and my heart tightened at the concern etched in his features. "You okay?"
"Do I look okay?" I shot back, perhaps a tad sharper than intended. He
