Badass in Disguise (Shadow) novel Chapter 369

Chapter 369

This morning, Chris Jensen brought in another doctor–the latest in a parade of specialists who had examined fade over the past weeks. Ethan watched from the corner of the room.

In the quiet moments between tests, Chris glanced at Ethan.

“Not once?” Chris asked softly. “She hasn’t woken up at all?”

Ethan’s silence was answer enough.

Chris studied Ethan’s haggard appearance–the dark circles under his eyes, the weight loss evident in the way his once–perfect suit hung from his frame. “You need to take care of yourself,” he said firmly. “If you collapse, and Night manages to take her, you won’t even have the chance to visit her.”

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The doctor finished his examination and stepped back, his expression already telling the story before he spoke. Like all the others, he could only shake his head, offering hollow phrases about “monitoring the situation” and “time will tell. Chris dismissed him with a wave, waiting until the door closed behind him.

Then Chris moved to the bedside and sat down, sighing deeply. His eyes filled with a profound sadness as he looked at Jade. He wanted to say something, but the words caught in his throat.

Though Jade herself had never considered her life particularly tragic, Chris had always felt differently. He knew what she had endured- the brutal training, the isolation, the betrayals. She had finally escaped the Shadow Organization’s control, successfully completed her revenge, and even found someone she could trust. Now she lay here, suspended between life and death.

After a long moment, Chris spoke again. “Night and Ethan are going to fight over you sooner or later. The kind of fight where only one walks away.” He paused. “If you don’t wake up, I don’t think I can stop them.”

Chris didn’t know if Jade retained any consciousness in her comatose state, but the doctors had suggested that verbal stimulation might help. If she could hear them, words might be the rope that pulled her back.

After sitting with her for nearly an hour, Chris took out his phone and recorded a short video of Jade.

“What are you doing?” Ethan asked, his voice rough from disuse.

“It’s for Night,” Chris replied simply.

He saved the recording and looked down at his phone. “He won’t try to take her again–at least not right away.” Night was unpredictable at the best of times; what he promised today, he might forget tomorrow.

Two weeks became a month, then a month and a half. Jade’s external injuries healed remarkably well, though the scars remained vivid against her pale skin.

During this time, Ethan had flown in top neurologists from around the world. Each time he brought a new doctor to Jade’s bedside with hope in his eyes, and each time he escorted them out with that hope dimmed further.

Eventually, Ethan had to accept the brutal diagnosis: Jade was in a persistent vegetative state. When he first heard those words –“vegetative state“-Ethan had felt the floor drop out from under him. A week later, he still hadn’t fully processed it.

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11:40 Wed, Oct 8

Chapter 369

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Vegetative state. People could remain like that for years. Decades. Forever. The thought of Jade never waking up made Ethan’s hands and feet go numb with panic, made him forget how to walk, how to breathe.

What terrified him most was the possibility that Jade might be conscious through all of this–aware but unable to move or speak. Trapped in her own body, forced to lie there day after day, hearing his voice but unable to respond. Subjected to the indignity of being cared for like a doll. Counting each passing day of her life slipping away.

In a few years, her muscles would begin to atrophy, transforming her into something neither living nor dead…

Ethan couldn’t bear to continue the thought. For someone as fiercely independent as Jade, this would be a fate a thousand times worse than death. Death would be a mercy by comparison.

She had once told him that, given the choice, she would rather sleep in a coffin than a hospital bed. Now she was trapped in a bed with

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