The night was colder than usual, the kind that made the city feel hostile, every shadow deeper, every sound sharper. Serena pulled her coat tighter as she walked home. The café's warmth still lingered faintly in her hair and skin, but her thoughts were a whirlwind—Dante's words, her father's letter, Ethan's silence. She wanted to shut it all out.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Ethan again. She let it ring, her heart aching with a weight she didn't want to name.
The streetlamps flickered. She wasn't alone.
Two men shifted at the corner, their movements too sharp, too deliberate. Another shadow lingered by the wall. Serena's pace quickened, her heart hammering. She fumbled for her phone, ready to call someone—anyone.
The first shot cracked the air.
Pain exploded through her chest, white-hot, ripping the breath from her lungs. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed onto the pavement. She touched her chest and felt it—blood, warm and endless, spilling through her fingers.
Her phone clattered uselessly beside her. The world dimmed at the edges, sounds fading into a muffled blur—screams, footsteps, the wail of a siren somewhere far away.
She thought of her father. Then nothing.
The hospital doors burst open, paramedics rushing Serena inside. The blood-soaked sheet clung to her fragile frame. Nurses shouted orders, machines beeped frantically.
"Gunshot wound—direct to the heart! She's crashing!"
The hospital hallways roared with chaos. Serena's body was wheeled in, blood soaking the sheet beneath her. Nurses shouted. Machines shrieked. The words "GSW to the chest, direct to the heart!" snapped the night in two.
"Maya!" someone shouted.
She was already there, breathless from running, her scrubs half-zipped. Her eyes widened at the sight of Serena on the table, limp and pale. For one second, she froze—her best friend was dying in front of her. Then her jaw set. "Prep her for open-heart surgery. Now!"
Scalpels flashed. Gloves snapped on. Maya's hands trembled only once before steadying. She wasn't just a friend anymore. She was a surgeon.
But Serena was fading fast.
"She's lost too much blood!"
"Then get some—"
"No time—she's O-negative!"
A voice rang out from the hall. "Use mine."
Leo stepped forward, already rolling up his sleeve. His face was pale, but his eyes burned. "I'm a match. Take it."
"You'll risk shock—"
"Do it!" he snapped. "She needs me."
The transfusion began, red life flowing from Leo into Serena. He slumped against the donor table, fighting dizziness, whispering her name over and over.
But then the monitor flatlined.
A single, piercing tone filled the room. Serena's body jerked once, then stilled.
"No, no, no—" Maya's voice broke, her hands pressing down on Serena's chest. "Not like this, Rena, not here! Charge to 200!"
The defibrillator paddles slammed down. Serena's body arched. Nothing.
"Again!"
Nothing.
The line stayed flat.
Maya's tears dripped into her mask. "Don't do this to me—don't leave us!" She pressed harder, chest compressions bruising her own hands, but the silence on the monitor was merciless.
Outside the doors, her mother crumpled against the wall, a cry tearing from her throat. Chloe and Jade held onto each other, shaking.
And then, the doors burst open.
Dante.
His coat billowed as he strode in, ignoring the gasps, the protests. "Sir, you can't be—"
"Move." His voice was quiet but lethal. And they moved.
He approached the table, eyes locked on Serena's still face. For the first time, the unshakable mask cracked, just a fraction. He reached down, his hand covering hers, his lips lowering close to her ear.
No one heard what he whispered.
But the monitor did.
Beep.
A weak rhythm. Then stronger. The line spiked.
Gasps filled the room. Maya froze, her eyes wide, before she surged back into motion, stitching, sealing, closing what the bullet had tried to destroy.
"She's back," a nurse breathed.
"She's alive," Maya whispered, tears streaming freely now.
Leo, weak from blood loss, stared across the room. His lips trembled, but he didn't speak. His gaze fell on Dante, still gripping Serena's hand, his expression unreadable, his presence like a shadow made flesh.
The others would say the transfusion, the surgery, the machines saved her.
But Leo knew. Maya suspected. And Serena's heart, fragile and stubborn, seemed to know too.
Dante had brought her back.