Isla’s POV
A few minutes passed. Then a few more.
Time in hospitals didn’t move the way it did everywhere else. It stretched. It stalled. It looped back on itself until seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like punishment.
I was staring at the same little crack in the tile across from me when a shadow fell over my shoes.
I looked up sharply. Rico stood there.
I hadn’t heard him approach. That alone sent a small jolt through me—my nerves were so frayed I was jumping at silhouettes now. He looked the same as he had when he left: jacket still on, jaw tight, eyes alert, like he’d never fully left whatever battlefield lived in his head.
“What now?” I asked quietly.
My voice sounded smaller than I wanted it to.
Rico slid into the chair beside me, elbows resting on his knees. “We ne
