ARIA POV
I’ve always handled pressure well. Always kept my s**t under control. Always planned before acting, even when acting fast. Panic is inefficient. Emotion clouds sequence. I built an entire company on that principle — evaluate, calculate, execute. Even if Jasper would never admit it. Even behind the scenes, playing house with a man who never deserved the version of me he benefited from.
And I have never, not once in my life, been afraid of being alone, even more in a hospital room. I was a scientist, I knew the human body as good as an actual doctor. I knew how medicines worked and the biological responses.
Since Alaric left, though — even though the panic attack had burned itself out of my bloodstream and I knew deep in my bones he would not stop until he found them — something
