Page 88 of Fallen Empire

“You hungry?” he asked, his voice low, tentative. “I was going to order something earlier, but you were asleep.”

My stomach rumbled at the suggestion, but I hesitated. “Not sure I can keep anything down yet.”

“I’ll get something light,” he said, already pulling out his phone. “Soup. Crackers. Whatever you’ll eat.”

There was no pressure. No push. Just quiet patience. Presence.

“Jaxson?” He looked up. “You don’t have to stay.”

“I know I don’thaveto,” he said softly. “But there’s nowhere else I want to be.”

A lump swelled in my throat. “Thank you.” It wasn’t nearly enough. Not for him. Not for Millie. Not for Ben. Because they’d found me. Because of them, I’m alive.

“Jaxson…” I hesitated, the words fragile on my tongue. “Can you tell me what happened? That day. How he got me, and… how you found me?”

His jaw tensed, that same guilt flashing behind his eyes like lightning behind glass.

“He got to you… because we were too confident he wouldn’t.”

He exhaled slowly, rubbing his palms over his jeans like the memory had lodged itself in his skin. “You’d just gotten home from the hospital. I’d planned on staying the night, but wegot into an argument—you were upset with me. Ben had left to grab a few things from my place. I fell asleep on the other side of your door. I never heard anything from inside.”

His voice dropped, edged with quiet frustration. “It took less than an hour.”

I didn’t breathe. I closed my eyes, trying to jog my memory. I’d kicked him out. Said I needed space. Asked if I’d be safe with him and Ben on standby. God, the guilt he must have carried.

“It wasn’t your fault,” I whispered, but he didn’t acknowledge it.

“When we realized you were gone, we pulled surveillance—your private feed first. Nic ran it frame by frame. We already knew he’d used the emergency escape. That’s where Ben found him on the camera’s when he was at my place. But by the time we figured out which direction he was headed…” His voice trailed off, jaw tightening. “It was too late.”

My stomach clenched watching him relive it.

“I remember,” I said quietly. “He was standing in my room when I opened the door after I…” I stopped short, not ready to admit I remembered asking Jaxson to leave. “He had a gun pointed at me. He was angry, but calm.”

“He was a demented human being,” Jaxson muttered, venom coating every word.

“Do you remember anything after he took you?” he asked. I closed my eyes again, trying to solve the puzzle floating around inside my head. I tugged at a few pieces, but they didn’t fit together.

I shook my head.

“It’s okay if you don’t,” he said gently. “The doctor mentioned you might have some memory loss.”

But it wasn’t that I didn’t remember. I had vivid flashbacks every time I closed my eyes. Every sound, everyscream, every moment where I thought I might die—they were etched into me like scars. Permanent.

It was just the timeline that didn’t make sense. What happened first, what happened last—it all bled together like a nightmare I hadn’t woken up from yet.

Jaxson pulled out his phone, and I knit my brows together, wondering who he might be texting. He slid it back into his pocket and looked up at me again.

“Ordered some food.”

I blinked. Food. I’d forgotten about food entirely.

“Ah… yes, thank you.”

There was a pause while I tried to jab a few more of those mental puzzle pieces into place. I could feel something rising—some memory just beyond reach.

And then my world tilted.

A gasp ripped from my chest, and my body jolted upright.