Chapter 153

**Chapter 153**

**Rafael**

Timing was everything, a lesson he had absorbed early in life. In the world of hospitals, where chaos often lurked beneath the surface, a certain order prevailed—one that followed a rhythm as predictable as a heartbeat. Guards would exchange their posts, nurses would drift in and out, and as night descended, the lights would dim, casting a gentle hush over the sterile corridors.

It was in this quietude that Rafael chose to move.

The hallways were steeped in silence, broken only by the soft thud of rubber soles against the polished floor and the distant, rhythmic beeping of machines behind closed doors. He glided through the shadows, a mere wisp of a presence, until he reached her door, which yielded to his gentle push.

Inside, the atmosphere was thick with stillness. Too still, save for the persistent beeping of her monitors that punctuated the silence. There she lay, the center of his world, her skin pale and mottled with bruises, her silver hair fanned out across the pillow like a halo of spilled light.

Wires snaked around her, gauze wrapped her fragile limbs, and stitches marred her skin—trappings that felt foreign to her spirit. This was not the woman who had faced pain with a smirk, who had teased him even as she leaned heavily against him, her strength waning.