Chapter 4

I woke up to the sharp sting of antiseptic and old, damp canvas.

A tent.

I was in a field medical tent. Neutral territory.

My leg was in a cast. No, not just a cast.

An external fixator. Cold metal pins pierced my skin, holding the shattered bone together like a gruesome scaffold.

But the pain in my leg was distant.

It was my abdomen that felt wrong.

It felt empty.

Hollow.

A cramping ache that was infinitely worse than the shattered bone.

Dante was sitting on a folding chair beside the cot.

He looked exhausted. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his suit was coated in gray dust.

"You're awake," he said.

"Where am I?" My voice was a dry rasp.

"Field hospital," he said. "The estate is compromised. The storm took out the power grid."

"My leg," I said.

"Tibia and fibula fracture," he recited. "Clean break. You'll limp for a bit, but you'll walk."

He said it like he was reading a weather report. Clinical. Detached.

"And the other thing?" I asked.

He frowned. "What other thing?"

He didn't know.

The doctors hadn't told him.

Or maybe they did, and he didn't listen.

"Why did you leave?" I asked. "Why did you leave me there?"

"The evac window was closing," he said. "Sofia is a critical mission asset. She controls the narrative in the press. If she panicked, the mission failed. It was a strategic choice."

"A scratch," I said. "She had a scratch."

"She has a low pain threshold," he said, his tone shifting to defensive.

"I was crushed," I said. "I was buried."

"You are strong, Elena," he said. "You always have been. Sofia is... fragile."

"I lost the baby," I said.

I didn't mean to say it.

It just fell out of my mouth.

Dante stared at me. The color drained from his face.

"What?"

"I was pregnant," I said. "Ten weeks. I lost it under the bookcase. While you were putting a Band-Aid on Sofia."

His mouth opened, but no sound came out.

"You... why didn't you tell me?"

"I was going to," I said. "But you were too busy planning a gala."

"Elena, I..." He reached for my hand.

I pulled away.

"Don't," I said. "Don't touch me."

Suddenly, the tent flap flew open and a medic rushed in.

"Mr. Cavallaro! Miss Ricci is asking for you. She says the humidity is making her dizzy."

Dante looked at the medic.

Then he looked back at me.

He looked at the empty space where a baby should have been.

"Tell her to breathe into a bag," Dante said, his voice tight.

"She's threatening to call the press, sir. She says she feels unsafe."

Dante closed his eyes. A muscle feathered in his jaw.

He stood up.

"I'll be right back," he said to me. "I just need to calm her down."

"Go," I said.

"I'll be five minutes," he promised.

"Go," I repeated.

He left.

He walked out of the tent.

I heard voices outside. The hushed, bored tones of international volunteers.

"That's the Ice Prince?" one asked.

"Yeah. Carrying the journalist around like she's made of glass."

"What about the wife? The one with the shattered leg?"

"Political marriage," the other voice said. "She's just the furniture. He's clearly in love with the other one. Repaying a blood debt or something."

"Sad," the first voice said. "She looks like she's made of stone now."

I looked at my hands.

They were shaking.

Not from fear.

From clarity.

My heart didn't break.

It calcified.

It turned into a hard, cold thing that didn't need blood to pump.

I wasn't the Caged Canary anymore.

The cage was destroyed.

And the bird was dead.

What was left was something else.

Something sharp.