Chapter 3

3、 Just then, a nurse wheeled my hollowed-out corpse down the hallway toward the morgue for cremation. A white sheet covered my body, my lifeless hand dangling over the edge of the gurney.

At that exact moment, Chloe's phone rang. "Hello, Ms. Harper? Your food delivery is downstairs. Could you come down to pick it up?"

Chloe asked in confusion who placed the order, and the courier replied that it was a Mr. Miller.

A tender smile instantly surfaced on her lips.

She stopped the nurse wheeling my corpse and asked her to hold on for a moment.

"This is the deceased organ donor. He needs to be taken down to―"

Chloe rubbed her stiff neck tiredly, distracted by her own thoughts.

"I'll handle his arrangements personally when I get back. Could you please watch over my brother in the ICU for a few minutes?"

Ten minutes later, Chloe returned carrying the takeout bag.

The nurse had to leave for her shift handover and lunch, leaving my gurney completely forgotten in the middle of the hallway.

Chloe stood there eating her meal. It was her favorite rotisserie roast chicken, and she smiled with pure satisfaction.

The moment she tossed the empty container into the trash, Dr. Bennett called her.

"I tracked down Caleb's room number. An influx of emergency patients just arrived on my end, so go check on Caleb for me."

"Wait, I don't want―"

Dr. Bennett hung up before she could finish protesting.

Chloe slammed her phone against the wall in fury, her hatred for me reaching a boiling point.

After leaning against the wall to catch her breath, she picked up the phone, its screen already cracked.

She opened Dr. Bennett's message and noted the room number, which happened to be right at the end of this very floor.

She glanced toward the end of the hallway and dragged her feet forward slowly.

When she reached the door of the room, she hesitated, then abruptly turned on her heel to leave.

I followed her to the corner, praying with all my heart that she would just turn the handle and look inside.

Suddenly, Chloe stopped in her tracks. In the next breath, she whirled around and stormed back toward the room at the end of the hall.

She shoved the door open violently and yelled inside.

"Caleb! Are you done playing dead yet? All you ever do is cause me endless trouble!"

The room was dead empty, offering no response to her shout.

Rage surged through her veins, twisting her facial features in disgust.

She tapped frantically on her cracked phone and unleashed a flurry of furious texts.

"Caleb, you're pulling this pathetic crap again. Didn't you promise you would never show your face in front of me again?"

"You'd better discharge yourself right this second and get the hell out of this hospital! Wherever you drop dead in the future is none of my damn business!"

As the messages sent, the phone in the pocket of my corpse down the hall buzzed quietly.

Sadly, no one would ever unlock that phone to read them again.

After hurling her barrage of curses, Chloe looked drained.

She tapped out another message to Dr. Bennett.

"Dr. Bennett, I told you he was lying. That room is completely empty!"

Just as she lowered her phone, Dylan's eyes fluttered inside the ICU ward.

Chloe immediately pressed her face against the glass window, watching him intensely, terrified to miss even a single twitch.

She remembered Dylan saying before surgery that he was craving roast chicken, so she quickly headed to the staff room and asked a nurse to buy some food.

Seeing how thrilled Chloe looked, the nurse assumed there was good news about Dylan.

Before the nurse could offer congratulations, Chloe brushed past her and rushed outside.

She arrived just in time to see Dylan slowly opening his eyes, and tears instantly spilled down her cheeks.

She pressed against the window, weeping with joy. "Dylan, you're finally awake!"

Behind her, a nurse's panicked voice suddenly echoed down the corridor.

"Dr. Harper! The donor's body was abandoned in the hallway after the organ retrieval! You need to come handle his remains immediately!"

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