Please don’t leave me.
I look up, spotting a paramedic entering behind Lance, and I stand to rush them. “Help me, please!”
“We can take it from here,” they tell Scarlet, but she doesn’t move. Her lips are moving but nothing is coming out. She’s completely checked out.
I move on autopilot and pull her away, even though my head tells me to let her carry on. She stands off to the side, looking down at where Nina bleeds.
I place my hands on the back of my head, praying to the gods that she will be okay. She has to be okay. She promised me.
“Sc-car-let.”
“Stay fucking still!” Lance shouts at Joey from behind me.
“Put the gun down!” I hear the paramedic shout, forming a shield around Nina and getting low to the ground.
I turn to see Joey barrelling towards Scarlet with the knife still clenched to his chest. “Nina! Oh god, N-nina. I-I’m so sorry!” Joey shrieks.
I turn as Lance’s voice shakes with warning. “Stop!”
“Sc-ar-l-let. I-I didn’t mean to, I?—”
My body jolts as the gun fires. I blink slowly, my heart thudding faster than any rhythm that’s healthy as Joey’s body crumbles to the ground with a sickening thump.
THIRTY-ONE
Mase
Six hours. Six agonising hours of waiting. Nina wasn’t breathing when we arrived at the hospital. What I witnessed in the ambulance isn’t something I’ll ever forget. The way the paramedics worked on her relentlessly shook me to my core. I’m surrounded by our families now, every one of them completely shattered as we sit in the waiting room.
Elliot drops down in the seat next to me, his hands running through his hair as he pulls at it. “I can’t take much more of this,” he mutters.
I don’t answer him, not having the words to ease the pain that’s embedded itself inside of me and probably him too. Lucy is lying with her eyes closed on the row of waiting chairs opposite us. She’s been the calmest of us all, eerily so. It’s almost like she isn’t here, and I wonder as I sit watching her if there’s a way to follow her to wherever she is right now.
Megan hasn’t stopped crying since she arrived. She’s satwith Vinny who I can barely make eye contact with. Charlie’s on his phone out in the hallway, already in work mode and prepared to fight for our best friend. I have no idea what Lance was thinking, and I don’t have the mental energy to process his actions right now. Then there’s Scarlet. She sits resting her head on her hand as she stares at the ground, her eyes wild and agitated.
“I’m going to go find someone,” I snap, shrugging off Elliot’s hand when he grabs my shoulder.
“Lowell, they’re going to kick you out.”
“I can’t just sit here!” I take a deep breath, my chest tight.
Scarlet comes to stand at my side. She looks up at me with understanding in her eyes. “I’ll go check with the nurses, see what I can find out.”
“I’m coming with you,” I tell her.
She nods, her face pale, drained of its usual spark.
We leave the waiting room and make our way to the nurse’s station where they all gaze at us with pity-filled looks. “Mr Lowell, I’m sorry but there’s still no news.”
“Ah, actually.” I spin around as I hear the deep voice at my back. A man in scrubs is exiting the elevator, his lips pulled tight into a hard line. “Are you Miss Anderson’s next of kin?” he asks.
I shake my head, anger lacing my voice. “She’s my fiancée, please, just tell me.”
He clasps a hand on my shoulder and stares down at me, before nodding politely at Scarlet. “Hello.” He starts to walk me down the corridor. “Let’s talk somewhere a little more private, okay?”
I’m about ready to brawl, needing to know how andwhere Nina is, when Scarlet’s hand takes mine. She squeezes tight but doesn’t look up at me. Is it bad? Does she know?
We’re led into a room with a horseshoe of seats and nothing else. It’s like the waiting room we were ushered into by the nurses down the hall but smaller. None of us sit down. My entire body trembles, my stomach churning as it readies itself for what’s about to come.
