Page 81 of Wasted Grace

Empty.

Relief floods me.

But apparently all my movement was enough to rouse the sleeping panther.

Wrong.Explodethe panther.

She jumps to her feet like she’s ready to engage, one hand flying to her waist. Is she always carrying? Even in a hospital?

Her eyes land on mine, still wide with disbelief... quickly morphing into something unreadable. Guarded. Uncharacteristically wary.

“Hey,” she whispers, voice surprisingly soft. “Pain?”

I blink. Then register it. Yes. My shoulder burns like a red-hot iron is embedded in it.

“I’m...” I croak. “It’s fine.”

She nods, immediately reaching for a cup with a straw and guiding it to my mouth. I sip with effort, but the cool water helps ease the sandpaper panic scratching down my throat.

“Do you remember anything?” she asks, slipping on that tight, professional frown I’ve grown used to.

“I... remember running to you. The shot. Then... nothing.”

She lets out a quiet sigh. One that sounds too much like relief.

“What...” I start, then pause. What do I want to know? Time? Day? “...time is it?”

She glances at her watch. “Next day. 7 a.m. You’ve been out for about... fourteen hours.”

“Oh,” I exhale. “Does my fam—”

The door opens before I can finish. A middle-aged nurse walks in with a clipboard and the kind of cheerful tone I want to strangle.

“Oh great! You’re awake.”

I offer a tight smile. “Yeah...”

She turns to Aadya, who’s now stepped away from the bed and stands alert beside it.

“So...” The nurse scans her pad, then looks at me, “Mr. Advik, are you comfortable discussing your medical status in front of—”

“Aadya Gupta,” she says flatly.

I nod.

The nurse nods, cheerful still. “Perfect. Now that we know your identity, we were able to gather your medical history...”

My heart drops. My stomach knots.Please don’t.

“So we now know what caused the complications during the surgery.”

Fuck.

I frown, but she barrels on. “The GSW wasn’t fatal—clean entry and exit, no arteries hit. But what wasn’t clean was your heart’s response to the trauma. But now we know why.”

No.Stop this.

“With the sedation levels interacting with your cardiac response—and given the drug toxicity that occurred about three months ago—”