Page 87 of Obsession & Oath

Home.

I immediately try to sit up, but the moment I move, pain shoots through me. I hiss, my head spinning slightly as I settle back into the pillows, noting, for the first time, the thick bandage around my arm.

Everything feels fuzzy and disjointed as I stare at it.

Then, it all comes rushing back in flashes.

The warehouse. The exchange. The silence before everything fell apart. Mia, bruised and bloody. I can still see her—her red hair matted with blood, the goddamn bruises.

And then...the gunshot. The searing pain in my side. Dante’s voice, shouting my name, so desperate it nearly shattered me.

I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to block out the memory, but it keeps coming back.

I remember Mia’s face so clearly. Watching her stumble toward me, the sight of her so wrong, so out of place. She wasn’t even my friend anymore. She wasn’t supposed tobethere.

But looking at her in that moment, beaten and bloodied, I couldn’t help but feel a deep, aching sorrow. I should hate her. Iwantto hate her for everything she’s done, for deceiving me, for being on the opposite side of this war.

But how could I? The Cartel hadn’t stolen an asset from the Prince’s Guild. They’d taken Mia as a hostage.

Just like me, Mia had been stolen from her home, her loved ones, for the sake of this war. But only one of us showed up to the exchange, looking like they’d spent the last few months being tortured.

It all starts to make sense why Dante did what he did…it wasn’t about me. It wasn’t about us. No matter how we left things between us, he always knew Mia’s life was on the line.

There’s a selfish piece of me that wishes things were different. A part of me that wants to believe that he could have chosen me over everything else. That he could have pickedme.

But in the quiet of my mind, I know better.

I would have done the same thing. If I were in his shoes, I would have chosen Mia, too. I would have traded myself for her, to keep her safe, to protect someone who never deserved to be in this mess.

Dante had no choice.

And neither did I.

I close my eyes again, and the weight of everything presses on me, a suffocating realization.

I just wish...I wish I hadn’t fallen in love with Dante.

I’m so deep in my own spiraling thoughts I don’t realize someone has joined me until the soft, melodic tone snaps me out of it.

“Hola, Carmen.” Doctor Alvarado comes into view, gently leaning over my bed.

Melissa Alvarado’s face is as soft and kind as it has ever been. Her smile still unchanged despite the twenty years she’s worked for our family—a constant, familiar presence in my life. One that I’m so, so grateful for now.

“Doctor Alvarado,” I murmur, trying not to let the tears spill from my eyes. “How long...how long have I been out?”

She offers me a look of sympathy as she presses the back of her hand to my forehead. “A few days. You were lucky, Carmen. You’ll recover.”

“Good,” I say, even though the word feels hollow.

Lucky. I don’t feel lucky. I don’t feel anything but emptiness.

Then, the inevitable question slips from my mouth without thinking. “What’s happened since I—since I left?”

Really, I should be asking about my injuries, my father maybe. But we both know what I’m asking for.

She hesitates. “I wish I could tell you, Carmen. Things have been tense. Very tense. But...I can't speak for Amos’ plans. You know as well as I do that he's unpredictable. Always has been.”

I nod, trying to swallow the bitterness that rises in my throat at the mention of my father.

---