Aria took the phone and put it on speaker. The screen read 2:16 a.m.
"Elias?"
"He's out." His voice was hoarse. "Out of the OR two hours ago. Awake for one."
Aria sat up. Damien had his back against the headboard, listening.
"Is he okay?"
"The surgeon got what he went in for. Clean margins. His vitals are boring." A pause. "Boring is what I want."
Aria pressed the back of her wrist to her mouth.
"Can I talk to him?"
"He's asleep again." On his end a door closed, and the hospital noise dropped away. "There are gaps."
She lowered her hand. "What kind of gaps?"
"He knows his name. He knew me. He knows he's in a hospital." Elias ran through it like a chart. "He thinks it's spring. He doesn't remember the flight out here. He asked the nurse twice where his wife was."
"Which wife?" Aria asked.
"He just said 'my wife.'"
Damien's eyes came up from the phone to her face.
