CARMEN POV
I woke to a strange, unfamiliar sensation.
Light.
Not the harsh, blinding kind that made my head pound. This was soft, pale, gentle—barely touching my eyes.
For one long second, I simply lay there and listened.
There was no shouting.
No pounding footsteps.
No Arthur.
My body felt—different. It felt lighter.
I moved my fingers first, flexing them slowly beneath the blanket, expecting the usual pull of stiffness and pain. There was some of that, yes, but not the same crushing agony I had become used to. My ribs still ached when I inhaled too deeply, but it didn’t feel broken anymore, and my leg still felt heavy in its cast, but the pain was distant now. Muted. As if the break had healed itself and the cast was now decorative.
None of this made sense. How long had I been
