Dominic's POV
I had never failed this badly.
Not as a businessman. Not as a son. Not as a man. But now—now, I had failed as a husband.
I stood over her hospital bed, barely breathing. The monitors beeped steadily. A cruel, taunting sound. Her skin was pale, her lips cracked, her body wrapped in bruises and gauze. She was alive, but what she carried inside her… wasn't.
And it was my fault.
I turned my back before the grief could fold me in half. My fists clenched against the weight in my chest, but the ache didn't budge. It just sat there like a wrecking ball, waiting for the next swing.
I had left her. I had let her slip through the cracks right in front of my eyes.
She had snuck out. A woman I claimed to love, to protect, snuck out while I slept—passed out, useless, and broken by insomnia. And what did that make me? Someone she couldn't trust to handle the mission? Someone too blind to see that she had a plan? Or worse—someone she didn't think could save her?
