“Major trauma center? How bad is it?”
I close my eyes. I need to be strong for Mia. For my brother.
“It was a rollover, ma’am. She was unconscious when the paramedics pulled her from the car. The doctors will know more once they evaluate her. That’s all I can tell you right now.”
I manage to thank him and hang up, staring at my phone in my hand like I’m trying to convince myself that the conversation really happened.
Behind me, the crowd screams even louder asFalloutshakes the arena and Grayson’s voice rips through the speakers. I have no idea how I’m going to tell him what just happened.
I rush over to Jake and Rylee, still trying my best to stay composed.
“Johanna?” Rylee questions, turning her attention away from the stage. “What is it?”
I don’t ease into it. I can’t. Mia may not have time for me to beat around the bush.
“It’s Mia,” I choke. “She’s been in an accident. It’s bad.”
Jake whips around in an instant.
“What?” he demands, eyes wide. “What the hell happened? I thought she’d just decided not to come!”
“She was on her way here from the airport. Paparazzi chased her. She crashed and rolled her car.” I shake my head, trying to push the images forming in my head and the sounds I’d heard over the phone from my mind. “She was unconscious when they found her. They said they’re taking her to a major trauma center.”
Jake turns in a full circle, trying to process what I’ve said before launching his clipboard at the wall in anger and frustration.
“She was coming here?” Rylee asks, tears already pooling in her eyes. “She was on her way to see him? She didn’t bail?”
I nod, unable to say anything else.
Jake curses under his breath, dragging a hand down his face. He looks like he’s just taken a punch to the chest. “Jesus Christ.”
“We have to tell Grayson,” Rylee insists, her voice becoming even more broken. “We have to get him off that stage.”
“I agree,” I say, already moving towards the barrier. “He needs to know.Right now.”
Jake moves to block me before I get any further. Why is he getting in my way?
“Wait—wait, wait. Just… think for a second.”
I turn on him, unleashing the inner ice queen that I’ve shoved so neatly in a box for the whole world to see.
“Think?” I hiss. “Jake, she could bedyingand he has no idea. You know what we just went through with our mom. Do you really think he’s going to make it if she dies and he doesn’t get a chance to say goodbye because he’s on stage—again?”
“I don’t want him losing his shit on stage in front of almost twenty thousand people,” Jake snaps back. “You think he’s a disaster now? You tell him this, he’ll lose it completely. Right in front of everyone. The press has been a nightmare for this entire tour. You wantthatmoment to be the one everyone remembers from the biggest night of his career, for it to be immortalized on a livestream? Because they’ll make sure it will be.”
“That’s not what this is about—” I start.
“Yes, it is,” he says, quieter as we notice people beginning to stare. “It’s not just about the press or the cameras. I care about Mia, too, believe me. But it’s about him, and what this nightwould have meant to themboth. She would’ve wanted him to finish the show.”
I feel Rylee step in beside me. “But what if she doesn’t make it, Jake? What then?”
The silence that follows nearly breaks me. Jake looks at the floor, not daring to make eye contact with us again.
“We’ll pull him the second the set ends,” he says. “We wait right here in the wings. No encore—the label can deal with it. The second he walks off, we tell him and we’ll have a car waiting to take us to the hospital.”
“And if something happens before then?” I push. “If she—”
“We’ll deal with it,” Jake insists. “But if you go out there now and pull him off that stage, you’ll shatter him before he has a chance to finish what she came here to see in the first place.”
