Chapter 2

2

Ten years ago, I wasn't the only one at the scene of that car crash.

My brother, Zach, had just started middle school back then. He was rebellious and loved sneaking out to hang out with local thugs.

I caught him on my way home from school.

Zach had stood out like a sore thumb among the older kids with cigarette burns and piercings.

He had been nervously handing over his snacks and allowance to appease them. Thinking he was being bullied, I rushed over without thinking.

My sudden arrival startled him. In a panic, Zach bolted blindly across the street.

Terrified that he would get hurt, I chased after him as fast as my legs could carry me.

"Zach, stop running! Come back!"

I wheezed, desperate to catch up to his silhouette.

Seeing me chase him, Zach stopped in the middle of the road and turned around to make a mocking face at me.

He was so focused on taunting me that he never noticed the speeding sedan barreling toward him. I lunged forward like a madwoman and shoved him out of the way.

My reflexes saved him, and Zach tumbled safely onto the sidewalk. But I was left frozen in the path of the headlights.

At that fatal second, Sally's parents threw themselves in front of me. They shielded me with their bodies, taking the full, crushing impact of the car.

I blacked out from absolute terror. When I woke up in the emergency room, all I saw was Sally staring at me with red, swollen eyes.

Zach was a coward who had fled the scene immediately. Every single shred of blame landed squarely on my shoulders.

I didn't want to carry such a heavy lie, so I opened my mouth to explain. But Zach grabbed my sleeve.

He pressed his palms together, begging me with teary eyes not to expose him.

I had always spoiled my little brother.

Besides, in that chaotic tragedy, finding fault wouldn't bring the dead back. So I stayed silent and took the blame.

Filled with hatred, Sally moved into our house and started tormenting me.

She smashed my favorite toys, took over my bedroom, and pushed me into the damp basement corner.

That was the first time I realized life could be so dark and hopeless.

The day my parents stripped away my right to eat at the dining table, I cried and protested. Mom grabbed a wooden broom and beat me mercilessly.

"You little monster! If it weren't for you, our family wouldn't be the town's laughingstock, and Sally wouldn't be an orphan! She could make you eat from a dog bowl, and you'd still deserve it!"

Sally's eyes lit up with malicious delight. Zach instantly took the cue.

He grabbed a chipped, filthy plastic bowl and tossed it at my feet like spare change.

"Sally is granting you a favor," Zach sneered. "Eat your scraps out of this from now on."

No parents treat their child like a dog unless they have stopped loving her entirely.

I learned that brutal truth through years of heartbreak.

But what about Zach? Was he hurting me just to stay on the winning side?

Just like right now. I closed my eyes in agony.

The doctor standing beside my bed asked with deep hesitation.

"Miss Chapman, are you absolutely certain you want to proceed with this bone marrow donation?"

Even a complete stranger could sense something was terribly wrong with my family's attitude. I nodded firmly.

Regardless of who Sally's parents originally died for, I would settle the debt today.

"Your health condition..."

The doctor trailed off, but I understood what he couldn't say out loud. I had advanced gastric cancer. I didn't have long to live anyway.

This invasive procedure would be the final trigger. I would never wake up from that operating table.

"It's okay," I whispered.

The physical agony in my body was nothing compared to the bleeding wounds in my heart.

Since no one in this world wanted me alive, dying was a relief.

The young nurse rushed back into the room, looking at me with frantic hope.

The glowing screen showed an incoming call from my boyfriend, Jude Miller.

The moment the call connected, his furious roar exploded through the speaker.

"Where the hell are you, Yara? Don't you know how much pain Sally is in right now?"

"It's just bone marrow! She isn't asking you to die! How can you be so damn selfish?"

"Even if I betrayed you, Sally is completely innocent. Don't take your petty revenge out on her!"