Quiet Resolve

~DONOVAN POV~

The nurse had just finished signing off the discharge papers when I stood, flowers in hand, watching Valerie gather herself slowly.

She looked smaller somehow, like the hospital walls had pressed her into something fragile. Even now, as she pulled on her cardigan, I couldn’t shake the image of her in that bed with monitors beeping around her.

“Ready?” I asked, my voice lower than I m