Chapter 243: This Is Real

Reese “I’ll go get my things.” Elizabeth said it like the world wasn’t collapsing in on itself. Like Roman hadn’t just been reduced to a body breathing by machines. Like the word coma hadn’t detonated something ugly and irreversible inside my chest. She said it like she didn't realize that things had gotten dangerous. She turned toward the hallway, already moving, already planning. Panic clung to her movements—too fast, too sharp—but underneath it was resolve. The kind that got people killed. My mind lagged behind reality. Roman was unconscious. Roman was at the manor. Those two facts refused to exist together in my head. They collided, over and over, like blunt objects smashing into bone. I stood there, staring at nothing, my vision blurring at the edges as if my brain was trying to protect me by shutting the hell down. How did it happen so fast? One minute we were stable—barely, but still breathing—and the next everything was chaos. No warning. No preparation. Just violence, blood, a