Adriano’s POV ~
I felt my breath crawl to a stop inside my chest.
It was the kind of stillness that cracked bones from the inside out. I exhaled…just once…and it felt like someone had shoved a jagged stone down my throat and forced me to swallow it whole. Very suffocating.
I could barely hear the beeping monitors anymore. The pain in my ribs blurred out, dulled by something far worse—something I couldn’t reach with my hands.
I turned slowly, my eyes dead on Salvatore, who was still standing there, rigid, his jaw tight. He wasn’t meeting my eyes fully, not the way he usually did. There was weight in his silence. And I hated it. I hated it more than the fire still eating through my veins.
My voice scraped out hoarsely.
“What the hell do you mean by that?”
Salvatore’s gaze finally lo
