“Miss Loretta?” Ramiro’s voice came through, alert despite the hour.
“I’m outside Rafael’s room,” I said quietly.
My voice felt strange in my ears—thicker than I intended, controlled only by effort.
“I... I don’t know the way back to mine. Can you come get me?”
A brief pause.
Then immediately, “On my way.”
The line ended.
I lowered the phone slowly, letting my hand rest against the wall for balance.
The silence returned.
But it wasn’t the same silence anymore.
It felt heavier.
My mind kept circling back to him—his voice breaking in sleep, the way he said her name like it still had the power to pull him apart.
And I hated myself a little.
Because beneath the pain, beneath the confusion, beneath everything I should have been feeling, there was still a part of me that remembered him.
His arms around me. His kiss—hard, consuming, almost desperate.
A part of me that didn’t want to let go of that feeling.
Even knowing exactly where his heart still belonged.
Chapter 14
LORETTA
The first thing I became aware of was the smell.
Sterile. Antiseptic.
Beneath it, something faintly metallic lingered in the air, mingling with the rhythmic beeping of machines.
I didn’t move at first.
