Chapter 124

Lake POV

“Yes. Your daddy is the best doctor in the whole hospital, and he promised me he’d take care of Ollie. So we have to trust him, okay? We have to believe that Ollie’s going to be fine.”

Julian nodded slowly, then pressed back against me, his small body shaking with suppressed sobs. I wrapped my arms around him—this little boy who loved Ollie, who’d witnessed his papa getting stabbed, who’d been through his own trauma today—and held him while he cried.

“Lake.”

I looked up to find Elena approaching, her expression a mixture of relief and concern. She knelt down beside Julian and me, her hand coming to rest gently on my shoulder. “Thank God you’re alive. We’ve been so worried. Ramon called from the road to let us know you were on your way here with Ollie, but—Lake, are you okay? Your face—”

“I’m fine,” I said, which was becoming my automatic response even though it was obviously a lie.

“You’re not fine,” Michelle said, appearing on my