Scarlett collects herself. “Okay. I should land around nine your time. Do you want to meet me at the airport? No, matter of fact, stay put. Are you home right now?” She squints. “No you’re not. We have ugly beige walls that need a paint job, not white. Where are you?”

I can’t go into why I’m at the hospital. If I tell her I’m signing off on being a heart donor and need her by my side when I go brain-dead, then she’ll never make it to the airport in one piece. We can talk about this in person. “I’m with Dalma and Orion. But I’m headed home soon.”

She wants to push for more information but resigns. “Stay put. I’ll see you soon.”

“Scarlett, before you go . . . you should register for Death-Cast. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“I love you, Scar.”

“I love you same, Val.”

We don’t hang up. It’s like we’re not sure if we’ll ever see each other again. We certainly won’t see each other if she misses her flight.

“Drive safely, sis. Pay extra attention to the road this time of night.”

Putting pressure on her to focus on her journey instead of my upcoming destination is the only way to make sure she doesn’t leave this world with me.

Orion

2:38 a.m.

I press my hands to my chest, feeling my steady heartbeats. It’s like my heart is finally behaving because it knows we’re going to evict it.

I look at my X-ray again, thinking about how if I ever write about this experience, I can use this as the book cover. Or maybe I’ll set the X-ray on fire so I don’t have to think about all these years where my insides were ugly and murderous like some hell beast. Nah, I can’t do that. Turning my back on my past means not remembering Valentino’s lifesaving contribution. Shit, that’s assuming any of this works. I don’t know what we’ll do if my body rejects his heart, or how much time we’ll even have to try something before I reach my own dead end.

I’m living so many story lines I didn’t plot when I began my day.