Chapter 2 ChTHE BROTHER

MAYA'S POV

The silence after Leo's question is the loudest thing I've ever heard. It rings in my ears, a high-pitched hum of pure failure. I failed to protect him from that thought. I failed to choose a father for him who would show up.

I press my forehead to his small, cool hand. The machine beeps. My new mantra beats with it: I am here. I am here. I am here.

A nurse breezes in, her scrubs too bright for this dim room. "Good news, Mrs. Thorne! Leo's numbers are improving. Doctor says if he stays stable, we can start waking him tomorrow."

The words are a life raft. I cling to them. "Tomorrow?"

"Fingers crossed. You should try to get some proper rest. He'll need you."

Rest. I almost laugh. Rest is a country I no longer have a visa for. I nod anyway, a robot programmed for gratitude.

Once she leaves, I step into the hallway. The fluorescent lights are an assault. I call my boss, my voice a flat, professional recording. "My son is in a coma. I need indefinite leave." I sound like I'm ordering a pizza. Inside, I am a raw, screaming nerve.

As I hang up, I hear a voice at the nurses' station. Warm. A little rough. Familiar in a way that feels like a forgotten blanket.

"...looking for Maya Thorne. Her son, Leo."

I turn.

Liam.

Daniel's younger brother. He looks like he fought his way here. Dark hair is a mess, as if he'd driven with the windows down for hours. He's wearing a worn leather jacket over a grey hoodie, a duffel bag hanging from his shoulder like an afterthought. He is all angles and tension.

His eyes find me. The change is instant. The polite mask drops, and what's underneath is a pure, undiluted alarm that seems to hit him in the chest. He's moving toward me before I can speak.

"Maya."

He says my name like it's a solid thing. Like he's handing it back to me.

"Liam." My voice is scraped raw. "How did you...?"

"My mom. She heard from Daniel that Leo was in the hospital." A muscle in his jaw flickers. "He didn't call me."

Of course not. Daniel's world is neatly organized. Liam- the artist, the freelance photographer who travels too much, who feels things too deeply- has always been in the 'miscellaneous' file.

His eyes do a quick, painful inventory of me: the three-day-old clothes, the hollows under my eyes, the hands that won't stop trembling. He doesn't look pitying. He looks... angry. But not at me.

Without a word, he shrugs off his duffel and then his jacket. He steps closer and drapes it over my shoulders. The weight is immediate, anchoring. It's warm from his body and smells like wind and coffee. "Sit," he says, his hand a gentle pressure on my arm guiding me to a plastic chair. "When did you last eat?"

I have to think. "Yesterday. Maybe. A granola bar."

"That's not food." He rummages in his duffel and pulls out a white paper bag. "I stopped on the way. It's just a muffin. And the coffee is terrible, but it's hot." He presses the cup into my hands, closing my fingers around it.

The simplicity of it undoes me. He isn't asking for anything. He isn't offering empty platitudes. He is presenting me with fuel. It's the most logical, human thing anyone has done for me in days. A hot lump rises in my throat. I focus on the steam curling from the cup lid.

"Thank you," I whisper, the words thick.

He doesn't crowd me. He leans against the wall opposite, his arms crossed. He's giving me space to breathe, but his presence is a solid wall between me and the echoing emptiness of the hall.

"Daniel here?" he asks. His tone is neutral, but I hear the careful calibration in it.

"He was." I take a sip of the bitter coffee. It's perfect. "He brought an audience. Clara and her daughter. They had a little viewing party at Leo's bedside."

Liam goes very still. The kind of still that isn't peaceful. It's coiled. "Clara," he repeats, the name a curse.

"The one and only. She's very... supportive. Apparently."

He lets out a short breath that isn't quite a laugh. "I bet." He pushes off the wall. "Where is he now?"

"I have no idea. His phone is probably taking a very important, forgetful nap."

A real, grim smile touches Liam's mouth for a second. "Sounds right." He looks toward Leo's room. "Can I see him?"

I nod, standing, his jacket slipping a little. He catches it, adjusts it on my shoulders again. The gesture is so unconsciously tender I have to look away.

We go in. Liam stops at the foot of the bed. All the coiled tension leaves his shoulders, softening into something like grief. He looks at Leo, really looks, taking in the tubes, the pallor, the unnatural stillness. His throat works.

"Hey, champ," he says, his voice quiet and full. "Your Uncle Liam is here. You're being so brave." He doesn't touch him, just lets his presence settle in the room. It feels different from when Daniel was here. It feels like shelter.

He pulls the room's other chair closer to mine and sits. "Tell me what the doctor actually said. The non-bullshit version."

So I do. I list the medical terms, the risks, the cautious hope for tomorrow. He listens, his brow furrowed, asking sharp, practical questions I hadn't even thought to ask. For the first time, I am not alone in the information. The burden, for a moment, splits in two.

"Okay," he says when I finish. "Here's the plan. You're going to go to the family lounge. You're going to lie down on that awful couch for one hour. I will sit right here. If anything changes, if a monitor beeps wrong, if he sneezes, I will come get you immediately. You have my word."

I want to refuse. But the logic is unassailable. I am running on vapors. Leo will need me more when he wakes up. "One hour," I say, my voice barely a whisper.

"One hour," he agrees.

I stand on shaky legs. As I pass him, I start to slip off his jacket.

"Keep it," he says, not looking away from Leo. "It's cold in here."

I wrap it tighter around me. In the lounge, the couch is as uncomfortable as promised. I lie down, the leather of Liam's jacket against my cheek. It smells like safety. I close my eyes, and for the first time since I walked into my own living room and saw a different life, I let the blackness take me. Not because I've collapsed, but because someone is standing watch.

My phone buzzes in my pocket, jerking me from a sleep so deep it felt like drowning. An hour has passed. The screen glows with a notification.

One new voicemail. From Daniel.

My thumb hovers over it. In the quiet, I can feel the solid, quiet presence of Liam down the hall, holding the line. I can feel the weight of his jacket.

I press play. I put the phone to my ear.

Daniel's voice, harried, slightly annoyed, fills the space around me. "Maya, hey. Look, I'm sorry I missed your calls. Clara had a crisis with Lily's school registration, it was a whole thing. I'm tied up. How's Leo? Call me back."

The message ends. I sit in the sterile silence, the warmth of Liam's jacket at odds with the icy clarity finally crystallizing in my veins.

I don't save the message. I delete it. Then I stand up and walk back to my son's room, to where a man who showed up is keeping his word.