His eyes fall to the ground, his jaw clenched angrily. “I’ve watched him step into her room here, listen to her nurse, sign whatever got him here, and just... walk out, like she can’t see or hear or feel. Like she can’t fucking speak.” His muscles clench and release over and over. “Sometimes I wish she would yell at him, but I get why she doesn’t. She knows he wouldn’t care; he makes that clear to her when he doesn’t even look her way.”

“He’s an asshole,” I force out.

Ransom chuckles, but it’s heavy. “Yeah, he is.” His eyes find mine, and slowly roam along my face as he slides closer, lifting my chin slightly.

“He’d hate you,” he says quietly, and my shoulders stretch. “He’d hate you because I don’t.”

Something settles over me and a sense of self-preservation knocks at the back of my mind, but I don’t answer.

Even if I did, it would be a Ransom shaped silhouette standing on the other side of it.

He was right before, a piece of him has found its way into every part of me. Even the ugly parts I hide.

I don’t know how or when it happened, and I can’t claim to care.

I like who I am with him.

Without him, I’m not sure I exist.

Ransom’s eyes soften as he stares at me, but then they lift over my shoulder and his entire being transforms.

The anger is gone, the heartache no longer lingering.

He smiles same as I witnessed that day I saw him in the park with her.

I’m almost nervous to look but then the foot of her chair comes into view and slowly I turn, watching as Ransom leans in to hug her, gently kissing her cheek.

She is young, maybe fifteen, and beautiful. Her hair, the most striking shade of blonde and her eyes, the exact shade of her brother’s.

She sits up in her wheelchair with the help of padded straps around her legs, chest, and her left arm. Her fingers tap at the right handle in which her palm lays flat and she tips her chin the slightest bit, her eyes sliding from me to her brother and back again.

Nervousness comes alive in my stomach like never before and I’m tempted to smile and exit, but I won’t. Emotions don’t come easy for me, but no part of this can possibly be easy on him, so I have to suck it up and open myself up to the terrifying feelings taking over me.

“Hi, Sienna.” I smile softly. “I’m Jameson.”

It takes several moments, but her blue eyes move back to Ransom, holding.

His grin is small, and a low chuckle leaves him. “She knows who you are.”

My mouth runs dry as I stare at his profile.