Me quedé de pie, con la garganta apretada. Lo puso en mis brazos, cálido, frágil, real. Me parpadeó, su pequeña cara se arrugó como si reconociera algo. El monitor de Tessa sonó más rápido. Me volví instantáneamente, con los dedos contundidos, sólo una vez. De nuevo, su mano se abrió ligeramente. Doc, la enfermera de afuera gritó.
I held her hand tight with one of mine, Leo cradled against my chest with the other. Her eyes fluttered, trying to open. Tessa, it’s me. My voice cracked. You’re safe. We’re both here. Her lips moved. No sound, just breath. I bent close. The word was barely a whisper carried between heartbeats. Leo. Her eyelids lifted. Weak but alive.
For a long second, everything stopped. The past, the revenge, the blood. It was just family. Broken but breathing. Outside the hospital window, light flooded through the rainclouds. The storm was over for now. 3 days passed before I stepped outside that hospital room again. 3 days of silence, broken only by the rhythmic beeping of machines and the quiet breaths of the woman I’d almost lost.
