Chapter 70 The Gift Of Protection

• Evangelina's thoughts drifted back to the early days of her captivity. The memory of the sterile clinic came rushing back to her, a place that had become both a sanctuary and a prison. The white walls had seemed to close in on her, filled with the scent of antiseptic, as if to scrub away the horrors she had endured. She remembered lying there, bruised and disoriented, with an ache that ran deeper than her wounds, something hollow and raw. She had felt alone, lost in a world she no longer recognized.
• And then Bruno had appeared. The quiet strength in his presence had cut through her numbness, a small tether to something steady amid the chaos.
• "Evangelina," he had greeted her softly, as if he were trying not to disturb her fragile state. His tone was gentle, more gentle than anything she had encountered since being taken, and it had managed to ground her, to remind her that she was still a person, not just a pawn.