“Everything that was said was just a means to an end. From the start, Chloe is the only one Elijah has ever loved.”

With that, Tyler dislocated my jaw. An agonizing pain spread through my lower face, and saliva mixed with streaks of blood spilled down my chin. Tyler let go of me abruptly, making no attempt to hide the sheer disgust in his eyes.

Suddenly, I was reminded of when I was a little girl running a high fever, and Tyler had stayed by my bedside all night long. When I fainted and threw up in the middle of the night, he had scrambled to wipe me clean, his face filled with nothing but pure heartache. Now, I was nothing more than filth to him.

Before my tears could fall, Elijah suddenly grabbed Tyler’s arm.

Tyler was taken aback. “What are you doing?”

Elijah looked at me, and a hint of reluctance flickered in his eyes. “We still need her alive for the bone marrow transplant. Don’t push her too far yet.”

Just then, Tyler’s phone started ringing.

“What? Chloe’s condition has worsened? She needs the umbilical cord blood right now?”

The hesitation and inner struggle on Elijah’s face vanished instantly. “I’ll have the private doctor come in right now to induce the miscarriage and harvest the blood!”

A sharp pain stabbed through my abdomen, and I began frantically thrashing my body.

“No… No! Don’t touch my baby! Elijah, I’ll donate my bone marrow! I’ll sign the consent form! I’ll even agree to the divorce! This is your child, too! Elijah, I beg both of you, just let me go! I will never show my face in front of you again!”

Elijah’s eyes widened, but Tyler cut in before he could speak. “Nora, do you really think I don’t know what your plans are? You want to use this child as a bargaining chip so you can flaunt it in front of Chloe in the future and make her life miserable, don’t you?”

He turned to look at Elijah.

“Elijah, Chloe is waiting. Every single second we waste puts her in more danger. For her sake, is there anything you can’t sacrifice?”

Elijah closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were dead and cold.

“Do it. As long as Chloe gets better, I don't care about anything else.”

Cold medical instruments forced their way into my body, and a sharp, piercing agony consumed my mind. In my hazy state, I felt as though I had returned to the day I first brought Chloe home. The girl we were sponsoring had suddenly lost both of her parents, so I begged my mom and dad to adopt her.

At the time, Tyler had frowned and said, “You shouldn’t bring strangers into our home. She might end up ungrateful for all you’ve done for her.”

When exactly did everything start to change?

Was it when Chloe sat on the ground at the bottom of the stairs with tear-brimmed eyes, whimpering, “Don’t blame Nora for this. I lost my balance, that’s all.”

Or was it when the rumors started flying, and she held her luggage with tears streaming down her face, crying, “I don’t know why Nora hates me so much… Maybe I should never have come here in the first place.”

I had tried my best to explain and fight back. However, every time I spoke, Chloe always found a way to make her tears fall first. With each passing day, Tyler’s gaze grew colder, and my parents’ eyes filled with a mounting disappointment. Just like that, right in front of the person I had brought into our home, I slowly lost absolutely everything.

Then, there was Elijah. For all those years, I had pursued him. I had watched his basketball games, waited for his classes to end, and clumsily learned how to bake the desserts he loved. Yet, he always looked right past me, his gaze somewhere else.

However, when Tyler threw me into the black market, Elijah appeared like a saving grace. Back then, I had buried my face in his chest and cried. I had truly believed that I had finally found my salvation.

How could I have known that I was walking straight into another abyss?

My mom’s familiar voice suddenly snapped me back to reality.

“How is Nora doing right now?”

The worry in her tone tugged at my heart. However, just when I thought I had finally caught a lifeline, in the very next moment, it felt as though I was thrown back into hell.

“Now that the bone marrow has been harvested, send it over quickly,” my mom continued. “Chloe can’t afford to wait any longer. Since Nora’s in surgery anyway, we might as well have them perform a hysterectomy, too. That way, we can prevent Nora from harboring any improper thoughts or schemes in the future.

“It’s all my fault for not raising her right, and it put Chloe through so much suffering. Cutting off that possibility once and for all is probably for the best for Nora, and for everyone else.”

My dad agreed with her statement. “Yeah, leaving it intact is indeed a ticking time bomb. No matter what, she is my biological daughter. I’d rather support her for the rest of her life than have her go out and ruin other people's lives.”

So, in their eyes, the entire purpose of my existence was nothing more than to pave a smooth path for Chloe.

With that, the last shred of hope inside me was destroyed. As my consciousness began to fade, I forced myself to reach out and fumble for the burner phone hidden on me.

[That favor you owe me—you can pay it back now.]

The moment the message had been sent, both the display on my phone and my mind plunged into darkness.

I had no idea how much time had passed before the pungent stench of disinfectant finally jarred me awake. My body felt as though it had been crushed into pieces and then forcefully patched back together. The hollow emptiness in my lower abdomen served as a constant, brutal reminder of everything that had just transpired.

Just then, a soft sobbing sound echoed from the bedside.

“Ugh… Elijah, Tyler, how could you guys do this to me?”

I looked over and saw Chloe leaning weakly against Elijah’s chest.

“Just the thought of putting something from her body into mine makes me feel so disgusted! Why didn’t you tell me? This is such an insult to me!”

Elijah looked down at her with concern, trying to comfort her. However, the moment he turned to me, his eyes betrayed his impatience.

“Since you're awake, apologize to Chloe right now! Beg her to accept your filthy bone marrow so it can save her life!”

Chloe challenged me, “Do you honestly think that just because you donated your marrow, I’ll be grateful to you? No! I will never, ever forgive you for everything you’ve done to me! I know you did this to yourself on purpose. You just want the boys to feel sorry for you! You just want them to watch me die, don’t you?”

“Chloe, don’t get so worked up. Your body can’t take this kind of stress,” Elijah rushed to soothe her.

Tyler went a step further by throwing me straight onto the cold floor.

“Nora, apologize right this instant and guarantee that you will never interfere with her treatments like this ever again!”

“She isn’t going to give a sincere apology!” Chloe cried out.

Chloe clutched Elijah’s hand, her eyes filled with tears as she looked toward our parents, who had just rushed into the room after hearing the commotion.

“Look at the way she’s glaring at me… Even if I accept her bone marrow, she’s going to find a way to kill me sooner or later!”

My mom lunged forward, frantically wrapping her arms around Chloe before turning to bark furiously at me. “Nora! This is a matter of life and death right now! Do you have to kick up a fuss at a time like this? You have driven Chloe to such a miserable state. Do you want her to die right in front of your eyes before you'll finally be satisfied?”

I stared at my parents, and then at Elijah, who was holding Chloe. Tears streamed down my face, slamming against the floorboards. So, this was what it actually felt like when a heart was dead.

Just as I was about to speak, Chloe’s body suddenly went limp, and she fainted into Elijah’s arms.

“Chloe!”

“Quick, call a doctor!”

Elijah’s face turned pale as he dashed out of the room with her. Tyler and my parents followed them out the door, but not before Tyler turned back to threaten me over his shoulder.

“Nora! If anything happens to Chloe, I will never let you off the hook!”

The hospital room door slammed shut with a deafening thud, and my vision went black as I collapsed. Beneath me, a pool of dark red liquid began to spread across the floor.

Once Chloe’s condition had finally stabilized, Elijah, seething with anger, kicked the door open.

“Nora, you better–”

His voice cut off abruptly. The hospital bed was empty. All that was left was nothing but a mess of tangled sheets and a pool of dark red blood on the floor that hadn't completely dried yet.

He grabbed a passing nurse, his voice trembling with a panic that he himself hadn't even realized.

“Where is the patient in this room? Where did Nora go?”

The nurse shook off his grip with a frown.

“Are you a family member? Get over to the emergency care right now! The patient has lost an extreme amount of blood, and her condition is incredibly poor. Family members need to prepare themselves for the worst!”

After waiting for a while, the news finally arrived that the patient’s condition had stabilized.

The very next second after I woke up, Elijah threw a document hard into my face. The sharp edge instantly cut my cheek, but before I could even react, a furious roar exploded in my ears.

“I can’t believe you conspired with the doctors to forge your condition, all just to avoid donating your bone marrow to Chloe! Open your eyes and look at this physical report! Just how many times are you going to lie to us over and over again!”

Enduring the agonizing pain racking my body, I forced myself up with all my remaining strength to pick up the report.

If Elijah had bothered to take even one proper look at it, he would have realized it was riddled with flaws. Even my weight on the report was what I had weighed three years ago. I had been so ravaged by medication over the past three years that I was dangerously emaciated. Yet, he still chose to believe it anyway.

Cold sweat drenched my forehead from the intense pain. It took everything I had to tell him the truth.

“This report… It’s forged.”

Before I could finish what I wanted to say, Tyler barged into the hospital room and dragged me off the bed. The IV needles and various monitoring wires were ripped out of me.

“All I asked was for you to donate your bone marrow, and that was to save Chloe’s life. Why do you refuse to give her a chance to live?”

His eyes were bloodshot. “I didn’t want to hurt you, but you… Nora, don’t blame me for what I’m about to do.”

I shook my head frantically, begging for mercy, sobbing that I would be good from now on. However, he ignored my pleas and ordered the bodyguards to drag me toward the car.

As my legs dangled out of the doorway, he brought his foot down on mine, and the very legs that had danced for sixteen years snapped just like that. My piercing, agonizing screams were instantly muffled by a bodyguard’s hand clamped tightly over my mouth.

“You’re full of lies, and I can’t gamble with Chloe’s life.”

The car sped toward the estate where they had locked me away for three years, and I was thrown straight into the basement. To my surprise, it wasn’t long before the door was pushed open and Chloe walked in.

Tyler and Elijah escorted her, flanking her on either side.

“Chloe is kind-hearted. She said she wanted to come and check on you.”

“You'd best behave yourself. If you dare say anything out of line to trigger her, you can say goodbye to your tongue.”

As the heavy door slowly shut behind her, the fragile, weak look on Chloe’s face instantly vanished. She leaned right next to my ear and let out a soft laugh.

“The great heiress of the Benson family amounts to nothing more than this! Since you’re about to die anyway, I’ll give you some peace of mind. The truth is, I’m not sick at all. And I don’t give a damn about Tyler or Elijah. I just wanted to fake my death and take the money to live a lavish life abroad. But then you had to come along and show up as a perfect bone marrow match. Perfect. I’ll just use this opportunity to play the game with you a little longer.”

My eyes widened in sheer shock. Before I could utter a word, she drew a paring knife from her coat and stabbed it into her own abdomen.

“Help! Nora is trying to kill me!”

Hearing the commotion, Tyler and Elijah rushed back inside. Seeing Chloe collapsed in a pool of blood, they both lost their minds.

The accompanying doctor scrambled forward to examine her.

“The wound is too deep and has triggered organ damage! We must operate immediately, or it’ll be too late to save her!”

“Then what the hell are you standing around for? Get her to the hospital right now!” Elijah roared, his eyes bloodshot, as Tyler scooped Chloe into his arms and dashed out like a madman.

They hadn’t made it very far before Elijah suddenly remembered something.

“Where is Nora? Bring her out, too! We are doing the bone marrow transplant for Chloe today!”

The bodyguard nodded quickly to comply. However, before Elijah could even step back into the estate, a deafening explosion shattered the air.

Elijah’s eyes were wide with horror as a roaring wall of fire instantly swallowed the entire building.