Chapter 188

NICO’S POV Sleeping was hard. It wasn’t that I wasn’t tired—I almost always was. It was that I couldn’t shut my mind off. It kept running around in circles, doing loops and backflips, ultimately around one topic—Bella. Ever since she’d awoken and found me by her bedside, she’d been…different. I’d moved back to the factory staff quarters after what happened, and I’d expected antagonism, braced myself for it. But Bella seemed…settled in my presence. It was like all the hate and anger she’d thrown my way when she’d screamed at me to reject her had simply vanished. She spent most of her days in her room, sleeping, and I respected her need for solitude and distance. When she did come out, though, it seemed that she sought me out. She sat with me during meal times, and even though we didn’t talk, the silence between us wasn’t tense. It was comfortable. I worried about her, about the episode she’d had regarding her ordeals. But she hadn’t brought it up, hadn’t shown much sign of distress othe