Chapter 3

3.

When I woke up, it was the next day.

Seraphina was guarding my bedside. Seeing me open my eyes, she immediately came over, her face full of guilt.

"Liam, you're awake? I'm sorry... does the incision hurt? What do you want to eat? I had someone buy your favorites..."

She took out various expensive supplements and gifts. But I just stared numbly at the ceiling, my eyes empty.

That day, while Seraphina went out to buy me porridge, Julian slipped into the ward again. He sneered.

"Well, isn't this the great hero who just donated a kidney?"

"Liam, you're pathetic. Sera says she loves you every time, but no matter how I hurt you, she always sides with me. Now she even made you give me a kidney! Why are you so clueless? Why do you insist on pestering her?"

I felt nothing but disgust. My voice was hoarse. "Get out."

His face changed instantly. He glared at me viciously. "Ungrateful wretch. Don't blame me for what happens next!"

He stormed out in a huff.

A short while later, Seraphina returned. She stormed into the room with a dark face, questioning me aggressively.

"Liam! Why did you bribe the nurse to tamper with Julian's IV?!"

I was baffled. "...Tamper with what?"

"Julian said it! You hate me for forcing you to save him, so you bribed the nurse to add high-concentration wolfsbane extract to his IV! It caused him to go into anaphylactic shock! He just barely survived the ER!"

Her tone was severe, carrying unquestionable accusation.

I found it incredibly ironic. My heart turned to ice.

"Julian has hurt me so many times, and you never truly held him accountable! He frames me once, and you come to interrogate me without distinguishing right from wrong? Seraphina, am I that vicious in your heart?"

"Aren't you? Who else besides you would..."

"I didn't!" I finally couldn't hold it back. The emotions suppressed for too long exploded. I sat up abruptly, tearfully screaming.

"Seraphina! I've had enough! I've really had enough! You only ever believe him! You favor him! My kidney is gone! I was almost killed by him! My body is covered in scars!"

"And you?! Besides forcing me to apologize, forcing me to donate organs, forcing me to die, what have you ever done for me?! Your love makes me sick! Absolutely sick!"

She was shaken by my outburst. Seeing my hysterical state, doubt flickered in her eyes.

But before she could speak, the ward door was pushed open. Julian leaned weakly against the doorframe, his voice faint.

"Sera... you promised me... He almost killed me this time... You said you'd hand him over to me for three days..."

Seraphina looked at the frail Julian, then at the broken me. A violent struggle flashed in her eyes. Finally, she spoke to Julian in a low voice.

"...Okay. But for these three days, you cannot put Liam's life in danger. That is the bottom line!"

"Don't worry, I just want to teach him a lesson. I won't take his life," Julian promised immediately.

I looked at her in disbelief. Seraphina was actually handing me over to be tortured just to appease Julian?!

"Seraphina! How dare you!!" I tried to get out of bed in terror, but she looked away.

"Liam... just three days... bear with it, and it will be over..."

Julian waved his hand, and two men in combat uniforms walked in. They unceremoniously dragged my weak body off the hospital bed!

"Seraphina! Help me! No! I don't want to go!"

I cried out in despair, reaching out to her. But she just clenched her fists, stood there with her eyes closed, and did nothing.

For the next three days, Julian locked me in a remote basement on the edge of the territory. He used every means to torture me.

Silver whips, poison needles, high-voltage shocks. He humiliated my body and dignity to the extreme.

Only when I was covered in blood and dying did he stop. He had me thrown back into the emergency room like garbage.

I don't know how long I was in a coma. When I woke up again, the doctor let out a sigh of relief.

"You're finally awake... we almost lost you... Notify the family to handle the paperwork."

He handed my phone back to me.

I opened it with trembling hands. The first thing I saw was an encrypted message from Elder Thomas: Contract dissolution complete. Remember your promise. Disappear completely.

Looking at the message, my heart hurt so much I could barely breathe, yet I felt a numb sense of relief.

Knowing Seraphina’s paranoid nature, I dialed the old Alpha’s private line. My voice was hoarse as I begged.

"Please help me fake a death certificate. Use an unclaimed male body from the morgue to replace me."

"If I suddenly disappear, Seraphina will use the pack’s power to search the world for me. Instead of endless entanglement, it’s better to let her think I’m dead. End it once and for all."

Elder Thomas was silent for a moment before finally relenting. "Go with my men. I will handle the rest."

Holding on by a thread, I left through the hospital’s back door under Elder Thomas’s arrangement and headed straight for the airport.

Meanwhile, Seraphina checked her watch. As soon as the three days were up, she ended the council meeting and called Julian. Her tone was anxious.

"The three days are up! Where is Liam? I warned you, no lives lost!"

Julian sounded aggrieved. "You miss him that much? Don't worry, I've already sent him back to the hospital. If you go now, you’ll be just in time to hear the news of his successful resuscitation."

Seraphina immediately drove to the hospital. Just as she arrived at the operating room, the light went off.

The doctor took off his mask and shook his head heavily.

"Alpha Seraphina, my condolences... Mr. Liam was tortured beyond recognition. His injuries were too severe. Multiple organ failure. We did our best."

Then, a gurney covered with a white sheet was wheeled out.