Jakob didn’t sleep.
He stared at the ceiling, quiet and still.
Orla knew something was wrong when he didn’t ask for his usual bedtime story. When he didn’t kiss her cheek like he always did.
She leaned over him, brushing his hair back.
“Baby, are you okay?”
He blinked.
And then whispered, “Do you love her more than me?”
Her heart froze. “Who?”
He looked her dead in the eye.
“Clara.”
Orla sat bolt upright, blood draining from her face.
Jakob had never said that name.
Not even when she’d mentioned it.
Not once.
Stanley was in the doorway in seconds. “What is it?”
She turned slowly. “He said her name. Without prompt. Without context.”
Stanley’s eyes darkened. “The serum.”
Jakob sat up in bed, his eyes unfocused.
“She said you left me behind,” he said. “That you only love me
