Mekena closed her eyes as tears rushed down her cheeks. A ringing noise filled her head, and all she felt was emptiness. She felt lost, unable to process what the doctor was saying, but then Markus was there, pulling her into his lap, kissing her temple as he hugged her tightly. “Breathe, baby, breathe.”

She couldn’t. She felt like she was going to pass out as her mother’s sobs filled the room and her father’s guttural cry followed.

She heard Markus’s voice. “There is nothing you can do? Could she make it?”

Clearing his throat, the doctor said, “The damage is just too great and, unfortunately, irreparable. The swelling in her brain is so severe that we’ve had to cut open her skull in spots in the hopes of stopping it, but we aren’t seeing improvement. Her blood pressure keeps dropping, and we are doing our best. But I’m very sorry, it is unlikely she’ll survive the night.”

Clinging to Markus, Mekena cried as he held her, kissing her and reminding her to breathe.

“Can we see her?” her mother asked, her voice breaking between the sobs.

“Of course. She’s heavily medicated. We’re unsure if she has control of her eyes. They keep flickering and are very swollen from the damage to her skull, so just a warning, it’s not easy to see.”

“I don’t care, I want to see my baby!” Linda cried, falling into Stan’s arms as he cried too.

“Please, we want to see her.”

“Of course, follow me,” he said, leading the way, and Mekena watched as her parents walked with him. They were almost out the door when they stopped, looking back to Mekena and Markus.

“Mekena, come on,” her mother urged, but she couldn’t move. Her heart was in her throat, her stomach was twisted in fear, and she couldn’t control her legs. She didn’t want to go. She didn’t want to see her sister like that. She couldn’t.

But how was she going to tell her parents that?

“We’re right behind you,” Markus said, and Mekena looked up at him in complete bewilderment. She didn’t expect him to want to go. That was his rapist, and he wanted to go in there? He wanted to be near her? How was that fair? How dare the world do this to him! It was bad enough he was dating Mekena, or hell, wanting to marry her with the possibility of seeing Skylar at the ceremony, but now he was supposed to stand beside Mekena as she watched her sister die?

That wasn’t right, and he probably felt guilt, bone-deep. He’d probably wished Skylar dead and now this. How was that fair? Everything was going so well for them, and then, bam! Skylar was fucking things up once more. Anger rushed through Mekena as the tears continued down her cheeks. Why couldn’t Skylar have just kept it together? Why did she have to be an addict? Why couldn’t she go back to the girl she was? When she loved Mekena and gave good advice and was there? Why did she do this? Why was she hurting everyone?

“You don’t have to go in there,” Mekena cried, but he looked down at her as she shook her head. “I don’t want to go in there.”

“Mekena, you have to. She’s dying.”

“No, I don’t want to,” she cried, her tears rushing down her cheeks as the lump in her throat nearly choked her.

“Yes, you do,” he said simply, bringing his hand up to cup her face. “You’ll hate yourself if you don’t, Mekena, and you know it. You need to go in there and say good-bye.”

“I can’t,” she cried, her sobs burning her chest. “I can’t see her like that.”

“I know, that’s why I’m going with you. I’ll be right there. Beside you, holding you, being the rock you need. We’ll do it together.”

“That’s not fair,” she cried, clinging to him. “You shouldn’t have to deal with this.”

“Life isn’t fair,” he whispered, kissing her jaw. “But I’m going because I want to be there for you. Not because I feel I have to, because I want to. For you.”

Pulling back, she looked at him through her tears and didn’t understand how in the world she was blessed with this man. “I don’t want it to hurt you.”

“It won’t. It will hurt if I know you have to do this alone. I’m good. I’ve got this because I’ve got you.” A sob escaped her lips as she wrapped her arms around him, crying against his neck as he held her, slowly standing and lifting her up. “Come on, let’s go.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, stopping him, her eyes pleading with his.

“Will you be beside me?”

She nodded jerkily, her heart pounding so hard it hurt. “Yes.”

“And I’ll be right beside you. So we got this. Don’t we? Together. Remember, we can do anything together,” he said, his voice breaking a bit as he held her gaze. She let out a sob as she nodded, her head feeling as if it was going to fall off her shoulders.

“Together,” she whispered, and his lips curved a bit before he laced his fingers with hers. He started walking first, his shoulders back and his chin high as he pulled her along with him. All she could do was watch him.

Watch the man who would walk through fire, ice, and anything else to be by her side.

The man who would forever be the first and only love of her life.

To say that fear was rattling Markus’s core was an understatement.

Markus wasn’t scared of much. He met everything head on with a fucking plan and executed it. That was who he was. But at that moment, only pure fear and anguish for the woman he loved built up inside of him. And for himself too. This was the first time he would see Skylar since they’d fought outside her parents’ home. The first time he would look at her, knowing he would never see her again. There was a chance she could make it, that the doctors could be wrong. More than likely, they weren’t, and that didn’t sit well with him.

As much as he could not care less what happened to her or where she ended up, he sure as hell never wished death on her. He wouldn’t want that for her or her family. For Mekena. He wanted Skylar to clean up, he wanted her to get better and maybe one day have a relationship with her sister. Mekena did love her, even though she didn’t see it at that moment. He wasn’t sure what she was thinking, but he was sure it was nothing good. He could see it on her face; the guilt was eating her alive, and he could feel her anxiety and grief pour off her in waves.