Chapter 78. I Had to

Later that day.

At the hospital.

Mario sat on the edge of the hospital bed, the sterile room too quiet. The bandages across his brow itched, but he didn’t move. His mind was louder than the silence, looping through what had happened earlier.

The door to his private ward creaked open. He didn’t look up at first, assuming it was the doctor returning until the quiet footsteps stopped just inside the room.

He looked up and his eyes met Charles'. Mario’s heart squeezed. Seeing him there, standing stiff in the room, made everything crash down again. His chest ached in a way he couldn't explain. He didn't even know he had grown to like Charles that much for what he did earlier to hurt him the way it was hurting.

He remembered the gun. The cold steel at the back of his neck. Charles, the same man who used to stammer when Lucien asked him to speak in meetings. The same man who always stayed up late trying to finish reports perfectly so gd could fi