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The doctor stripped off his gloves, peeled away the paper gown, and tossed everything into the bin like it didn’t matter anymore.

Because it didn’t.

“I’m sorry, Colson,” Dr. Darling said quietly. “He was gone when they brought him in. I got him back once.”

Once.

Like that meant something.

All it did was prolong the inevitable.

He nodded because there wasn’t anything else he could do.

He knew this room. Knew some of these people.

He had stood on the other side of scenes just like this more times than he could count.

But those weren’t going to change the trajectory of his future like this would.

“Nothing you could do.” The words were automatic and empty. “I knew this day would come,” he said so quietly that he was positive no one heard him. It wasn’t that he meant to, other than he needed to have them escape his lips.

He looked at the body on the bed. The man who’d been a ghost in his life long before tonight.

The one he barely had a relationship with now as an adult and couldn’t stand half the time as a child.

“Do you want to say goodbye?” Dr. Darling asked.

“No.” He’d done that years ago. “Where’s his phone? I need to find Bella.”

“He didn’t have one on him.”

“Thanks.” He turned away before anyone could say anything else.

At the desk, a young officer hovered, waiting to see what the next steps would be.

“Detective Ryder,” he said, flashing his badge. “You called me.”

“Yeah. Shit. I didn’t realize who you were. Sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

He read the name tag. “Officer Greene. Do you have his phone? My father’s.”

Officer Greene lifted a baggie. “I was about to take it to evidence⁠—”

“Give it to me,” he interrupted. He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. “He’s dead. They’ll draw blood and confirm what we already know. He didn’t hurt anyone but himself. We both know how this goes.”

The officer hesitated, then handed it over.

Colson walked back into the room, ignoring the nurse’s look. He pulled the sheet back, and held the phone up to his father’s face, unlocked it and immediately changed the password.

Control what you can. Always.

It was how he worked. Or how he did now.

Didn’t seem how his life ever went though.

He went straight to the texts, found Bella at the top, then hit her name to call.