I couldn't sleep.
I sat on the edge of the bed, elbows on my knees, hands tangled in my hair. The hospital room had been too quiet after she left. I told her I had calls to make, but the truth was I needed space, space to think. To breathe. I couldn't stop wondering what was going on.
She was slipping from me, and I knew it.
But it wasn't just about her distance. It was about what the man said. The guy who nearly killed her. "This is for Selena."
Selena...
I leaned back against the wall, staring at the ceiling like it might offer an answer. Instead, all I saw were flashes of Marie in that wreckage, blood dripping down her face, eyes wide with confusion and fear. And me, too late. Always too damn late.
I reached for my phone and opened the hidden folder I never let her see. Messages. Photos. A few redacted reports. Dad's old case files.
Selena.
