Elena's POV
After Aiden left, I shattered.
Grief tore through me like jagged glass—relentless and unforgiving. Sobs convulsed my body, sharp and guttural, each one a fresh wound splitting open inside me.
I curled into myself on the stiff hospital bed, the sterile sheets crumpling beneath my fingers as I clutched them like a lifeline. The room felt too white, too clean—like an empty canvas mocking the wreckage inside me.
I gasped for air, but each inhale burned—knives slicing through my ribs, through my chest, through the hollow place where my baby had once been.
I squeezed my eyes shut. I wanted to disappear. To unmake this moment. To wake up and find it had never happened.
But the pain was real. And Aiden was gone.
His choices had led us here—his rage, his recklessness, his goddamn
