Aria's POV
I knew something was wrong before I opened my eyes.
It was the quality of Lucian's stillness. He was awake, which I could tell by his breathing, but he hadn't moved, hadn't reached for me, hadn't done any of the small morning things he always did. He was just lying there in the dark being very deliberately quiet.
"What happened?" I said.
"Good morning to you too."
"Lucian."
He was silent for a while then he spoke up.
"Derek called at two," he said.
I sat up. The cabin was grey with early light, Luna still quiet in the next room, Leah's soft footsteps already moving in the kitchen. Everything normal. Everything fine.
Except Lucian's face.
"Tell me," I said.
He told me.
I listened to all of it without interrupting. The employment records. The two years of treatment. The biological samples. The twenty-five years of documentation.
When he finished I sat there for a moment.
"He was my doctor," I said.
"Yes."
