Chapter 181

Silvia I heard everything. Every single word. It felt like forever, being stuck like that. I was awake, but I couldn't move a muscle. Time broke apart. Days felt endless, then vanished in seconds. In that heavy darkness, sound came first. Voices reached me as if through water, muffled and distant. The steady beep of a heart monitor carved a rhythm in the void. Then, the voices grew clearer. They became my lifeline. Katy would visit and ramble about finally taking my advice about Pedri. " I'm trying not to fly off the handle so much, " she'd say, her voice cracking." But you have to wake up, Silvia. I'm not making anything official with him until you give me the green light. I need my best friend's sign-off, okay ?" It was so dramatic and so perfectly Katy that I wanted to laugh. To tell her not to put her life on hold for me. Aunt Rosie brought the smell of home with her. The sweet scent of something baking cut right through the hospital air. " These cookies aren't going to eat themsel