Boundaries and blurred lines

Vincenzo's POV

Hospitals had begun to smell like endings to me, even when someone had survived.

When I walked into Silvia’s room the next afternoon to discharge her, she was sitting upright, hands folded in her lap like a child waiting to be told what to do.

The moment she saw me, her eyes lit up, not with excitement but something akin to relief.

“You came,” she whispered.

“I said I would.”

She