Chapter 17

Bea's POV

As I regained consciousness, I was startled by the annoying sound of someone's loud breathing. It was an incompatible combination of harsh, snorting noises that instantly pulled me out of my blissful sleep.

Upset, I reluctantly peeled open my weary eyes, only to be met with the sight of Adrian Marquez, peacefully snoring away like a hibernating bear. Surprisingly, this sight did not startle me as much as one would expect.

It was almost as if his presence had become a recurring part of my life, both in my waking hours and in the realms of my dreams. I had been encountering him frequently in my nocturnal visions, and perhaps that was why his sudden appearance in my reality failed to surprise me.

Attempting to dismiss his presence as a mere hallucination, I brushed off any lingering thoughts of his odd resemblance to the man of my dreams. After all, it seemed rational to give credit for these vivid encounters to a thing that I seem to