Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A bitter smile formed on my spectral lips as cold agony spread through my limbs.

As the evening sun dipped below the horizon, Mother piled steak and roasted potatoes onto Austin's plate at a nearby restaurant.

"Eat more, sweetie. Look how thin you've gotten. Don't listen to those jealous colleagues. I believe in you. Just by pulling off this transplant, you've already surpassed your brother. You two are family, yet he threw a tantrum when I gave you the case. He doesn't know the first thing about supporting his own brother."

Disgust laced her tone, her brow furrowing as if she were remembering something utterly repulsive.

A piece of steak slipped from Austin's fork onto his plate. Guilt flashed in his eyes before he forced a bright, innocent smile.

"Mom, I'm only an intern. It makes sense that Zack didn't trust me. After all, it was his life on the line. He's always known my academic scores... but whatever, my conscience is clear."

He tossed the comment out with calculated nonchalance before retreating like a humble, unbothered child.

Mother slammed her hand on the table with a sharp sneer.

"He was only your med school instructor for a couple of courses! He knows your grades, yet he kept preaching that theory is different from practice. He was just terrified you would outshine him! Disgusting. Go home and rest after dinner. Let him stew alone at the hospital for a couple of days so he learns his lesson."

I stared at her in disbelief, an ache throbbing deep in my chest.

As a chief surgeon herself, she understood better than anyone the massive gap between textbooks and real operations.

No patient's anatomy behaved exactly like a diagram in a book. True surgical skill required years of relentless practice and accumulated experience.

Yet the most absurd part was that she wanted to neglect a post-op patient just to put me in my place.

It was so ridiculous that I laughed until tears fell, experiencing pure grief turned into hysteria.

"Forget about that bad luck charm," Mother muttered, wrapping an arm around Austin as they stood up. "Let's go home. I'll handle the hospital schedule."

I hurried after them, screaming into her ear over and over again.

I am already dead! I died by your son's incompetent hands! You should have gone to see the butchered incision and the botched sutures! Someone like him doesn't deserve to hold a scalpel, let alone be a doctor!

I screamed until my spirit felt shredded, but Mother only shivered slightly from the evening breeze. She took off her jacket and draped it over Austin's shoulders.

"The weather is getting chilly, but an infection shouldn't happen so fast," she muttered to herself. "They say bad weeds never die. Someone as stubborn as your brother won't die easily."

She sounded like she was comforting Austin, but she was really comforting herself. The moment they arrived home, she went straight to bed.

Overcome with dread, Austin turned off his phone and hid under his covers. Neither of them noticed the hospital calling their phones repeatedly, notifications flooding their screens.

It was past midnight when Mother groggily got up to grab a glass of water. In the dark, the persistent glow of her screen startled her, and she finally answered.

"Dr. Bennett, Zack is gone. You need to come to the hospital immediately. We suspect he passed while still on the table―"

Mother snapped wide awake, her voice turning sharp and furious.

"I thought it was an actual emergency! So he woke up, didn't he? Did he put you up to this just to trick me into coming over? Doesn't he have anything better to do? Faking his own death right after a successful surgery? Tell him that if he wants to die, go right ahead, but stop trying to frame his brother!"

She slammed the phone down, her chest heaving with rage as she struggled to catch her breath.

I drifted farther away, shivering from an unnatural, bone-deep cold.

In her eyes, I was nothing more than a despicable scoundrel who would fake his own death just to drag Austin down.

Tell me, Mom... how could a patient who just had his heart cut open hire an entire ward of doctors to stage an act?