Angela looked to the doctor, who awaited her decision, and nodded.

There was paperwork to be signed and formalities to be seen to.

“Can we donate his organs?” Angela asked. “I think he’d want to do that if he could.”

“I’m sorry, but he was without oxygen too long for them to be viable,” the doctor said.

“Oh. Okay.”

Heartbreak on top of heartbreak. That was how Sam would remember this dreadful day.

“Should I bring the kids in?” Angela asked.

“No,” Tracy said emphatically. “They shouldn’t see him like this. They need to remember him the way he was.”

“I agree,” Sam said. “It would be too much for them to understand.” She couldn’t think about Jack without wanting to wail at the injustice of it all. Spencer and Jack were inseparable. Her sweet nephew would be crushed by the loss of his dad. “Ang.”

Angela turned to Sam, her face ravaged with heartbreak.

“You need to request an autopsy, and I’d like to ask Lindsey to do it. Would that be all right?”

“Whatever you think is best.”

“It may not matter now, but you’ll want answers. She and I will get them for you.”

“Okay.”

Sam made the call to her close friend, Dr. Lindsey McNamara, the District’s chief medical examiner.

“Hey, Sam. How is he?”

“We’re about to remove him from life support.”

“Oh my God.”

“I’d like you to handle the autopsy. Can you come?”

“Yes, of course. I’ll be there shortly.”

“Thank you.”

“If there’s anything else I can do…”

“I need you on this, and I appreciate you handling it.”

“Please tell Angela…” Lindsey’s voice caught. “Tell her we’re praying for her, Spencer and the kids.”

“I will.”

Sam ended the call and conveyed the update as well as Lindsey’s message to Angela, who received it without seeming to understand a word that Sam said.

When the medical team was ready for them, they went to Spencer’s room and surrounded his bed with loved ones.

Sam noticed he’d been extubated but was still attached to other machines.

“Would you like to hold him?” the nurse asked Angela.

“Yes. Please.”

The nurse helped Angela get settled on the bed next to Spencer.

This was the saddest thing Sam had ever experienced in her life, and she wasn’t sure she could bear to watch it happen.

As if he knew that, Nick’s arms encircled her, propping her up when she needed him most.

“Are you ready?” the doctor asked Angela.

“How long will it take?”

“Not long.”

Angela kissed Spencer’s face and then his lips. “I love you forever,” she whispered.

Watching his parents kiss their son goodbye had Sam turning into Nick’s embrace as she broke down.

“I’m ready now,” Angela said.

As the nurses shut off the last of the machines keeping Spencer alive, Sam forced herself to turn back toward the bed, to be fully present for Angela. She’d never been prouder of her sister than she was as she let her beloved husband go peacefully.