Page 289 of John + Siena: The Complete Duet

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine.”

“I am.”

“Siena, I am taking you to—”

“I can’t leave, John,” she said. “I don’t have an enforcer with me, and it’ll only cause problems. I wanted you here because I was scared.”

A small smile edged at the corner of John’s lips. “You can do whatever the fuck you want to do. Don’t you realize what happened today?”

“A lot happened.”

And she was still trying to figure it all out. She supposed her scrambled head wasn’t really helping her case at the moment.

“Darren is as good as dead, Siena,” John murmured, holding her face so she couldn’t look away from him. “The cops let it slip when they were hounding me—he’s on life support until someone pulls the plug, and he’s not coming out of it. This is almost over. We’re so fucking close, love.”

A small swell of relief threatened to drown Siena.

Reality was a quick bitch, too.

Darren wasn’t dead.

Not entirely.

Not yet …

“Everything is going to change,” John said. “Starting now. I promise.”

Siena stared down at the prone form resting in the hospital bed. Monitors beeped, displaying heart rate, oxygen levels, and a non-existent brain function. Stiff, white blankets that had been warmed before being brought in were tucked firmly around Darren’s form.

According to the nurse, the blankets were new. Over seventy percent of Darren’s body had suffered severe burns in the blast, and being covered was typically considered a major no-no. However, the lack of brain function, and the stress his body was under meant Darren had not been placed on the burn victim ward.

There was no point.

John had been right.

Darren was not coming back from this.

A tube down his throat attached to a respirator kept him breathing. His heart only continued to beat because of the oxygen being pumped into his body. His brain was not working, and thus, not allowing his body to breathe on his own.

CT scans, MRIs, and reflective tests all showcased the same thing for Darren. He was, entirely, braindead. He was not going to wake up one day, and he was not going to get better as time passed on.

Ever.

The nurse and doctor moved quietly throughout the room. They worked in tandem which was interesting to watch. As soon as the doctor reached for something, the nurse came right behind him to finish what he left behind. Or better yet, should he need something, the nurse was already there to fulfill his unspoken request.

It was only once their attention turned back on Siena that she straightened a bit more, and waited for their next move.

“You can wait to sign the documents, if you so choose,” the doctor reminded her.

“My lawyer was clear. We went through the proper channels. Darren has no wife, no children, and at the moment, no parent we can make contact with. I am—according to the law, and the judge that signed off on my lawyer’s petition—Darren’s only next of kin. And I made my decision.”

She said all of this with a cold detachment that likely didn’t escape the doctor or nurse’s notice. At the moment, it was the best she could offer them. She had gone through a lawyer to get this finished—it only took about a week when her mother couldn’t be contacted, and did not appeal the decision to make Siena her brother’s next of kin capable of making life or death decisions for his person.

Who knew where Coraline was?

Siena had no idea.