Chapter 123. I Deserve It

2014

Adrian’s POV

I didn’t know how long I had been unconscious.

Minutes. Hours. Maybe a whole day.

Time didn’t seem real anymore.

The only thing I remembered was my uncle’s call; his voice was tight, heavy, and final. Then the frantic rush to the hospital. The desperate need to see for myself, to prove the worst hadn’t happened.

But it had.

Lila was gone.

And then…nothing.

The doctors told me later that I had passed out. Right there in the hallway, before I could even reach her room. Shock, they said. My body shut down before my mind could catch up.

Now, I was awake.

Lying in a hospital bed, staring at a ceiling I didn’t recognize.

My phone sat on the table beside me, its screen black, battery dead. Not that it mattered. I had nothing to say to anyone.

The nurses came in and out. I barely acknowledged them. My uncle had been in at some point, updating me on the things I should care about; th