There has to be more damage than what’s visible on the surface.
My jaw clenches at the thought, but I don’t move from the chair beside her bed.
Instead, I watch.
I count each breath she takes.
I check her pulse often, to reassure myself it’s still there.
At one point, I start counting the freckles dotting her face.
But while my eyes remain on Piper, my mind is elsewhere.
“I’ll find out who did this to you,” I murmur quietly. “And when I do, I’ll erase them from the face of the earth.”
Chapter 38
Piper
Being in London had been a nightmare.
I hate this city.
It holds too many unpleasant memories, so many that at some point they drowned out the good ones until those disappeared altogether.
But sitting in this hospital room beside my unconscious friend somehow makes it even worse.
Ophelia had a car accident.
And now she’s in a coma.
My throat tightens as silent tears fall down my cheeks, and Hunter’s hand finds mine and squeezes gently.
He hasn’t stopped touching me since we arrived.
Small gestures of comfort that I don’t quite know what to do with.
I don’t even know why he’s here.
I understand why Adelaide, Eleanor, Octavia and I are here.
But the men from the Ferrum Syndicate?
That part surprises me.
Then again, Arlo hasn’t left Ophelia’s bedside for a second.
And the way he looks at her...
It’s as if she’s the only person left on this planet.
He looks terrible too.
His usual composed demeanour is nowhere to be found, and for perhaps the first time since I’ve known him, he looks, distressed.
And I suppose I understand Milo’s presence as well.
That man is permanently attached to Octavia, as though she holds his entire world together.
