I'm married to Marcello Marchetti, the Don of the Marchetti family in Newstone. He has an adopted younger sister, Letizia Marchetti, who's supposedly a genius hacker. While she's not related to him by blood, he has raised her since she was a child.

One spends all her time wreaking havoc, while the other dutifully cleans up all of her messes for her. Everyone in Newstone knows just how much Marcello dotes on that sister of his.

Then, she hacks into my car remotely and messes with the brakes. The car crashes into the road divider at a speed of 120 miles an hour. It flips over three times, and I get caught under the wrecked metal, bleeding profusely.

By the time the ambulance arrives, I've gone into shock three times.

The blinding lights in the emergency room look like they're mocking me.

Marcello stands beside the nurse, signing the consent form as he sighs. "Don't be mad at Letizia. She just thought there was something wrong with the braking system for that car, so she decided to run some tests. She had no idea you'd be using it today."

Just then, his phone rings. He takes the call, and after just three seconds, his expression changes.

"What did you say, Letizia? Someone spiked your drink at the bar?"

He throws the pen down and heads toward the door at once, leaving in such a hurry that he doesn't realize he has selected the wrong blood type on the transfusion consent form.

When I see the bag of blood the nurse brings me, my lips twitch. I suddenly lose all desire to stay alive.

"Go ahead with the transfusion."

Stella's POV

"Mrs. Marchetti, you have Type A blood. This blood bag is Type B. Are you sure you want us to proceed with the transfusion?" the nurse asked as she held up the blood bag, her brow furrowed.

"Go ahead." My voice was as light as a feather. "My husband, Don Marcello Marchetti, signed the consent form himself. There's no way it'd be a mistake."

The nurse hesitated for a few seconds before finally letting out a sigh and tearing open the packaging. The moment the needle pierced my vein, a chill spread from my wrist straight to my heart.

Slowly, I closed my eyes. In under 20 minutes, I started feeling a dull pain in my lower back. It felt like someone was carving into my bones with a blunt knife.

Then came the fever. My whole body trembled. No matter how tightly I wrapped myself in the blanket, it didn't help. My teeth chattered, making faint clicking sounds.

At that moment, the door flew open with a kick.

Marcello Marchetti strode in, the collar of his shirt hanging open and a lipstick stain still visible on his neck. Behind him was Letizia Marchetti, who looked perfectly normal and unscathed. She was wearing a sequined spaghetti-strap dress, her eyes red-rimmed, making her look delicate and pitiful.

"What kind of stunt are you trying to pull this time?" Marcello snapped after walking up to the bed and staring down at me. "The doctor already said you only have superficial injuries and a mild concussion. Why are you shaking like that?"

Gritting my teeth through the pain that was intensifying in my lower back, I said, "I'm cold."

Marcello let out a mocking laugh and adjusted his tie. "Cold? The room is set to 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Why would you be cold?"

He turned toward Letizia, and his voice immediately softened as he said to her, "Letizia, turn up the thermostat. Otherwise, your sister-in-law will find another excuse to complain."

Letizia obediently nodded and walked over to the controls on the wall. After pressing a few buttons, she turned back around and looked at me timidly. "I'm so sorry, Stella. I really didn't know you'd be driving that car. I just wanted to test my new program... Cello already scolded me. Please don't be mad, okay?"

Tears began rolling down her cheeks.

Marcello immediately pulled her behind him protectively and shot me a dark look. "That's enough. Letizia nearly got hurt at the bar just now. She has already been through a terrifying ordeal tonight, yet she came all this way here just to apologize to you. What more do you want?"

I looked at his righteous expression. Out of nowhere, I found myself feeling rather amused.

The car had rolled three times on the highway. I had nearly died in that crash.

But what my own husband cared about the most was whether Letizia had been taken advantage of at the bar.

"She's been through a terrifying ordeal, you say?" My voice was as rough as sandpaper. "She went clubbing and got hit on by a man. In your eyes, that's a terrifying ordeal. In that case, what do you call nearly dying in a car crash?"

Marcello frowned, the impatience practically spilling out of his eyes. "Why do you keep talking about death? Haven't I already arranged for the best medical team in the city to attend to you? Besides, a military-grade collision protection system was installed on that car. Letizia had already calculated the odds to prove that you would've been just fine."

She'd run the calculations, huh?

I stared at the blood dripping steadily from the bag I was hooked up to, the one containing Type B blood. It was slowly flowing into my veins, destroying my cells and organs.

Letizia had indeed calculated every last detail with pinpoint accuracy.

"Marcello," I called out quietly. "What if I really end up dying?"

He stiffened for a moment before scoffing at me. "This again? Whenever Letizia makes the tiniest mistake, you use your death to threaten me. Don't you know that the way you're acting just gets on my nerves?"

He pulled over a chair, sat down, and crossed his legs. "Drop the act. If you feel uncomfortable, I'll tell the doctor to prescribe you some painkillers.

"Letizia was badly shaken today. I need to stay with her tonight. You can stay here by yourself and get some rest."

I said nothing.

My body temperature kept climbing, and my vision began to blur. My chest felt as though it were on fire. Every breath I took made my lungs feel like they were burning.

I knew what this meant—these were the early symptoms of a hemolytic transfusion reaction. The red blood cells all over my body were rupturing.

"Are you not feeling well, Stella?" Letizia tugged on Marcello's sleeve. "Her face looks really red."

Marcello didn't even glance at me. "What are you talking about? It's probably because she's mad that I'm not staying here with her."

He got back on his feet and eyed me, his gaze as cold as ice. "Stella, I'm only going to say this one last time—stop playing these stupid games with me just because you're jealous. Letizia is my sister. It's my duty to protect her. If you ever take this attitude with her again, I won't go easy on you."

Staring right back at him, I smiled. "Sure. You'd better do everything you can to protect her, then."

Scoffing, Marcello took Letizia's hand and walked off. "We're going. Let's not waste any more of our time on this crazy woman."

The door slammed shut.

I looked at the nearly-drained bag of blood and closed my eyes.

Not long afterward, I heard the sharp click of high heels echoing down the corridor outside.

Letizia came back into the hospital room alone. Marcello wasn't with her. The previous display of meekness and aggrievedness had vanished from her face, replaced by blatant smugness and malice.

I ignored her.

The fever caused by the hemolytic reaction had already drained me. I didn't even have the strength to lift my arm.

Letizia walked to my bedside and flicked my IV line with her fingers.

"My, my. How pathetic you are. Did you know? While we were out in the corridor just now, Cello called you a nuisance."

She leaned closer and lowered her voice. "You can see it clearly now, right? Between you and me, I'll always be his first choice."

I exerted the effort to open my eyes and stare coldly at her. "Are you done? If you are, get out."

But Letizia didn't get mad. In fact, her smile widened in delight.

"You're so stubborn, Stella—but it's fine. You won't be able to keep that up for long."

She pulled a palm-sized microcomputer from her handbag and began typing rapidly on the tiny keyboard. The screen emitted a faint blue glow.

"Cello keeps saying you're just pretending to feel unwell. I don't think that's true. Why don't I help you make your condition seem a little more realistic, hm?"

The moment she finished speaking, the alarm went off. Shrill beeps rang from the cardiac monitor beside my bed, with the red light flashing.

My heart rate shot up to 190. My blood pressure plunged, dropping below the safety threshold.

The piercing sounds echoed through the entire floor.

I watched Letizia's performance with a stoic expression.

Suddenly, hurried footsteps came from the corridor.

"What's going on?" Marcello was the first through the door, his face dark as a storm cloud.

A group of panicked doctors and nurses came in after him.

The moment the door opened, Letizia had surreptitiously slipped the microcomputer back inside her handbag before staggering two steps backward. She covered her ears, shaking as she cried out, "Cello! I don't know what's going on. The alarm just started going off! I'm so scared…"

She threw herself into his arms, crying so hard her body trembled.

Marcello wrapped an arm around her and gently patted her back. "It's okay. Everything's alright. I'm here."

A doctor rushed over to inspect the monitor, sweat beading on his forehead.

"That's strange. Her vital signs are stable. Why would the monitor's alarm go off?"

Marcello began to scowl. After calming Letizia, he turned toward me, his gaze sharp as a knife.

"Stella! When are you going to stop playing these games? How dare you mess with the medical equipment just to get me to stay? When did you become this person? I'm so disappointed in you!"

Staring right back at his livid expression, I didn't even have the energy to shout back at him. "You think I did it?"

Marcello sneered. "Who else could it be, besides you? You're jealous of Letizia, so you're trying to frame her!"

He strode over and yanked my blanket off in one swift motion.

"Get out of the bed right this instant and apologize to Letizia!"

The cold air swept over my burning body. I fell into a violent coughing fit, the blood filling my throat. Swallowing it back down, I looked up, my gaze flat and cold.

"Did you get kicked in the head, Marcello?"

He froze. In our entire eight years of marriage, I had never spoken to him like that before. I'd always been gentle, patient, and accepting of everything.

"How dare you insult me like that?" Marcello spat out through clenched teeth, his eyes wide with disbelief.

"I'm just calling it like it is—and you're an idiot." I calmly reached out and unplugged the monitor's power cord.

The shrill alarm cut off instantly.

At last, the hospital room was quiet again.

"The next time you guys decide to act like complete hypocrites and twist things around like that, don't bother disgusting me with your performance."

I flipped over on the bed, showing my back toward him.

"It only repulses me."

Marcello's fists clenched so tightly his knuckles cracked. "Very well. I see how it is. Since you're so tough and stubborn, Stella, you can stay here all by yourself! I shall see how long you can keep this up!"

He grabbed Letizia's hand and stormed out.

"Cello, does Stella hate me very much?" Letizia asked, looking hurt and aggrieved as she cried.

"Ignore her. She's just a nutcase."

As the footsteps grew fainter, I closed my eyes and swallowed down the second mouthful of blood that rose in my throat.

The next day, a breaking news bulletin interrupted the regular programming on the television in my hospital room.

"Major security vulnerabilities have been discovered in the Marchetti family's smart driving system, Phantom. At 8:00 am this morning, eight vehicles equipped with the system suddenly lost control on the highway, causing a chain collision. Three people have already suffered severe injuries and…"

Leaning against my pillow, I struggled to wipe the blood from the corner of my mouth. My vision had already begun to double. I knew the hemolytic reaction was gradually destroying my body's ability to produce blood.

Marcello stood by the window, shouting into his phone, "Is the entire PR department on vacation? Suppress the news immediately. I don't care how much it costs. Just find a scapegoat and say it was caused by some freelance programmer who was acting alone."

Furious, he ripped off his tie and hurled it onto the couch.

Letizia was curled up in a corner of the couch, twisting her fingers together and looking completely innocent as she said, "I'm sorry, Cello… I just thought the system's firewall was too basic and wanted to give them a surprise. How was I supposed to know it would end up causing a car accident..."

Marcello took a deep breath before walking over to her. Patting her on the head, he said, "It's fine. I'll take care of it. Just don't be so cheeky next time. The media loves blowing things out of proportion all the time. It was just a minor accident. We can easily settle this by paying the victims some compensation."

My stomach churned as I heard him speak in such a flippant tone.

Human lives had been jeopardized, but in his eyes, it was just a "cheeky" act that could be smoothed over with some "compensation".

Enduring the agony of multiple organ failure, I reached beneath my pillow and pulled out my laptop. The moment my fingers touched the keyboard, I felt slightly more awake.

My fingers flew across the keyboard as I swiftly coded something.

To protect Letizia, Marcello would undoubtedly erase every trace of evidence that linked the accident back to her. I had to gather all of her original data before my time ran out.

The progress bar crawled across the screen. My vision grew blurrier by the second. By now, I was relying almost entirely on muscle memory to type.

"What are you doing?" Marcello had just gotten off another call and turned around to see me typing away on my laptop.

He marched over and slammed the laptop shut. "We have a major crisis on your hands, yet you're still in the mood to play computer games? How can you be so heartless and unfeeling, Stella?"

I looked up at his infuriated expression.

"You're accusing me of being heartless and unfeeling?" I snorted, coughing up a bit of blood. "What gives you any right to say that when you've chosen to cover up for a murderer, Marcello?"

His expression hardened, and his gaze turned stormy. "What the hell are you talking about? Letizia is still a child!"

Letizia hurried over and hugged his arm. "Are you trying to report me to the authorities, Stella? But you don't have any evidence."

She winked at me, her smile taunting. "Cello already had all of my activity logs deleted. Even if you go to the authorities, no one will believe you."

Seeing her fearless expression, I opened up my laptop again. "Is that so?"

I pressed the Enter key, and the encrypted archive was completed.

The folder contained evidence of her tampering with the smart driving system that led to this incident. Not only that, but it also had the complete record of every server intrusion and trade-secret theft she had committed against the rival families over the past five years.

"Don't act rashly, Stella!" Marcello reached out to snatch the laptop away from me.

I drew away from him and eyed him coldly. "Relax. I'm just writing my will."

His hand froze in midair. After staring at my colorless face, he suddenly snorted. "Your will? Why would you need a will when you're barely injured? You're becoming more and more unreasonable every day!"

He grabbed Letizia's hand and walked off without hesitation. "We're going. Let her carry on with her crazy stunts alone!"

The moment the door closed, I could no longer hold myself upright. My head collapsed onto the pillow.

On the screen, the delivery for the encrypted archive had been scheduled. It would be sent out four days after my death.