Chapter 98

Isabella

Life had to be playing some cheap, twisted trick on me, some kind of cruel joke that had me wondering if the universe had a sick sense of humor. Just days ago, it was Alessandro lying broken and bloodied, his life hanging by threads so thin I could almost see them snapping one by one. I’d sat beside his bed, watching machines breathe for him, counting heartbeats on monitors, praying to a God I wasn’t sure was listening that he’d open his eyes again.

Now the roles were reversed. Now I was the one with bandages wrapped around my wrists like shackles, with tubes snaking under my skin and machines humming their mechanical lullabies beside me. The irony wasn’t lost on me; if anything, it felt like the punchline to a joke no one had the decency to laugh at.

My head felt disconnected from my body. My mind was a mess. Thoughts floated in and out like smoke, never staying long enough for me to catch them, never solid enough to hold onto. What was real or not