Page 72 of Fated
“What happens if we switch off the machines and you’re wrong?”
It was a pointless question because I already knew the answer, but I was still hoping that somehow I was wrong.
“If her body doesn’t heal itself, then she’ll die.”
I rubbed my hands over my face. It was an impossible choice.
“What do you think will happen if we keep her on the support?” I asked, needing another option. Switching off the machines and potentially losing her was, to me, not an option.
He was silent for a few moments.
“She’ll stay in a coma and she’ll never wake up.”
I let out a frustrated sigh as I turned to face Scarlett and Cade.
Two choices. One choice would leave her the way she was. My eyes moved to Keri. She was alive but she wasn’t living. I rubbed my forehead as I contemplated the only other choice. We removed her from life support but there was a good chance she would die. My eyes moved from Keri back to Scarlett and Cade. Gone was Scarlett’s anger, and Cade held her as she leaned against him. Her eyes met mine.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Scarlett replied in a hoarse voice.
I needed someone to give me the answer because I wasn’t sure I would be able to make the choice.
“I need a minute alone with her,” I said out loud and quietly they left me alone with my mate.
I sat down in the chair beside Keri. The constant beeping of the machines keeping her alive reminded me that she wasn’t breathing on her own. All my fear and anxiety disappeared the moment I took her small hand in mine. Her hand was warm and I held it to my lips to kiss her.
“Hi, baby,” I whispered hoarsely as my emotions began to filter through to the surface.
“You need to wake up,” I pleaded softly, needing her to know how badly I needed her to live. Contemplating a life without her was like dying a slow death that I didn’t think I could endure.
Was having her like this better than not having her at all? I closed my eyes, feeling the overwhelming responsibility of her life in my hands.
“I don’t know what to do,” I admitted to her, feeling defeated.
I looked over her still face and took in her paleness. She wasn’t getting any better with the machines.
It was like taking a gamble with her life and I wasn’t sure I could do it. But looking at her lying in a bed, unable to breathe for herself, was heartbreaking. A tear slid down my face and I brushed it away hastily.
“What do I do?” I echoed my thought.
Keri was fierce and independent. She was strong and I knew deep down that this wasn’t the way she would have wanted to live. Even when Curtis had first suggested switching off the machines there had been a small part of me that had known he was right when he’d said that she wouldn’t have wanted to live like this.
There was only one option. It hadn’t been an easy-to-reach decision, but I knew that even though I was scared it would have been the decision Keri would have made. There was a chance and I had to hold on to that. I couldn’t allow myself to think of what could go wrong, I had to concentrate on the slight hope that Curtis was right and by switching off the machines it would make her body start to heal.
I had to get her back.
“I love you,” I whispered to her as I took a few moments to calm my emotions so I could tell Curtis my decision.
I stood up and leaned over to kiss her. I held on to the peace our touch gave me as I left the room in search of Curtis.
Curtis, Cade, Scarlett and Kyle were waiting patiently outside her room. Kyle had a solemn expression on his face when his eyes met mine.
“No,” he said firmly as he could see the decision in my eyes. “You can’t do it.”
“Curtis is right. She wouldn’t want to live like this,” I began to explain, but Kyle wasn’t listening. The only thing he was concentrating on was the fact that I was going to switch off the machines.
“You’ll be killing her!” he shouted at me as he launched himself in my direction. He got in one good hit before Cade pulled him back.
