71. Nothing Different
Mara
I woke up expecting the world to feel different after what Marcus told us the previous day.
He had given his permission. He had stood in that room and said the words out loud. I had hugged him. Zander had looked at me with so much quiet hope in his eyes. For a few hours last night it had felt like something huge had shifted, like the air itself might taste lighter in the morning.
It didn’t.
I opened my eyes to the same guest room, the same soft morning light filtering through the curtains, the same quiet beeping of the monitor Doc still insisted on keeping for a few more days. Zander slept beside me, propped carefully against a stack of pillows so the wound in his chest wouldn’t pull. His breathing was steady, but even in sleep his face held a faint crease o
