The impoverished student I had sponsored, Jacob Murphy, had accumulated a massive gambling debt. When the debt collectors had kicked the door open, my childhood sweetheart, Renee Austin, had shoved me forward instead.

Her voice was cold and distant. “He’s Jacob Murphy. Take him away.”

In the darkness of an underground casino, they tore out my fingernails, then smashed my ribs one by one with an iron rod.

When the searing pain arrived, I groveled on the floor like a dog. I was weeping and screaming, without a shred of dignity.

Then, they “mercifully” gave me one chance to call for help.

Clinging to the last sliver of hope, I called Renee.

Her voice on the other end sounded very cruel.

“If you hadn’t set him up, how would Jacob have ended up buried in gambling debt? Even if you die at their hands, you deserve it.”

The dial tone after she hung up became the last sound in my world.

Later, I really did die, just as she had said. However, there was not the slightest trace of a smile on Renee’s face.

It was as if she had gone mad. Her eyes were bloodshot as she searched every underground gambling den in the city.

‘Renee, why were you crying for me?’ I wondered.

My sister, Andrea Rainier, had just come home with my ashes in her arms when Renee Austin kicked the door open.

She had swept her gaze across the empty room. Her voice was cold. “Where is Cameron? Tell him to get out here.”

Andrea shrank into the corner and held the box in her arms even tighter.

She smiled at Renee. “Cameron’s right here.”

Renee’s brow furrowed tightly.

Her eyes landed on the cheap wooden box, then shifted to Andrea’s innocent face.

She let out an impatient scoff and reached out to snatch it away.

“You idiot. Where’s he hiding? Did he make you hold this stupid box to mess with me?”

Andrea guarded the urn with all her strength. Tears were welling in her eyes.

“Cameron is right here. He is inside. Be gentle. You might hurt him.”

Renee looked as though she had just heard the most ridiculous joke in the world.

She knocked Andrea’s hands away.

The wooden box hit the floor. Ashes scattered everywhere.

“Right. Does a menace like Cameron even know pain? When he set up Jacob, why didn’t he think about how much it would hurt him? Stop pretending to be crazy and tell him to come out.”

Andrea froze.

She stared blankly at the ashes on the floor.

Several seconds passed.

Then, she suddenly threw herself down and started gathering the ashes with her bare hands.

“Cameron, it’s okay. I’ll protect you.”

As she looked at Andrea’s filthy hands and tear-streaked face, the last bit of patience in Renee’s eyes vanished.

“Go on. Keep acting. An idiot and a vicious demon. You two really are family.”

She sneered and tipped her chin at the bodyguards.

“Search the place. Drag him out. He actually had the nerve to fake his death to trick me? I’ll make him kneel in front of Jacob and apologize.”

The bodyguards moved at once.

Furniture was shoved over roughly, and dishes shattered.

The house was thrown into chaos.

Andrea screamed in terror and tried to stop them, but they pushed her aside easily.

All she could do was curl up beside the ashes, trying to shield me with her tiny body.

I clenched my jaw and rushed up to Renee.

“I’m dead. You got what you wanted. Why won’t you leave me alone?”

She did not even glance at me.

I stared blankly at my hand in the air. My whole body froze in place.

That was right. I was already dead.

The bodyguards did not find me.

Renee’s fury reached its peak.

She walked up to Andrea and stared down at her.

“Where is your brother?”

Andrea sobbed as she took something from her arms and carefully held it out.

“Cameron’s locket. You can have it. Please don’t hit Cameron.”

It was the locket Renee had fastened around my neck herself all those years ago.

I had worn it from the day I came of age and had never taken it off.

At this moment, covered in dust, it lay in Andrea’s dirty palm.

Renee narrowed her eyes. She snatched it away.

As she stared at the locket, her chest heaved.

A second later, she hurled it to the floor with brutal force.

The locket shattered on impact. Pieces flew everywhere.

“He was even willing to use this for his little act. Looks like he really went all out.”

Her voice was hoarse. It was hard to tell whether it came from rage or something else.

“No. Cameron’s dead. Cameron’s gone.”

Andrea crawled over and tried to piece the locket back together.

Renee’s gaze locked onto Andrea’s face.

“She’s still talking nonsense. Lock her in the basement. As long as Cameron doesn’t show up, she doesn’t get to eat. I’d like to see how long he can keep hiding.”

The bodyguards grabbed Andrea, who was crying so hard she could barely breathe, and threw her into the basement.

Andrea lay on the floor. For a long while, she could not get back up.

I walked over and took a look. My eyes turned wet instantly.

To get my ashes back, Andrea had gone to beg the people at the underground casino.

Of course, those people would not have let her take them away without paying a price.

For three whole days and nights, when she finally walked out of that place, her legs had been trembling.

However, she had not cried. She had simply smiled and held my ashes close.

She had said, “Cameron, I’ll protect you from now on.”

At this moment, as I watched her open her palm, I saw that the broken pieces of the locket had cut into her hand.

She only smiled.

“It’s Cameron’s favorite locket. I’ll give it to Cameron when he comes back.”

She was shivering from the cold, but she still tucked the locket pieces inside her shirt and held them against her chest.

I could not hold it in any longer. I broke down and sobbed.

After our parents died in a car crash when I was eighteen, the trauma had frozen Andrea’s intelligence forever at the age of eight.

We had only each other.

I never imagined she would go this far for me.

I looked at Andrea.

I did not want anything anymore.

I only wanted my little sister to live.

The next day, Renee did not bring food to Andrea.

She naturally did not see that Andrea had fallen unconscious from a high fever.

Three days later, Renee finally remembered Andrea in the basement.

When the basement door was pushed open, a moldy smell mixed with a faint trace of blood rushed out.

Andrea was curled up in the corner.

Her face was flushed with fever. Her cracked lips had started to bleed.

Her breathing was so weak that the rise and fall of her chest could barely be seen.

Renee’s footsteps halted. Her brow furrowed on instinct.

“How did she end up like this?”

Just as Renee was about to turn and call for someone, Jacob Murphy’s voice came from behind her. His voice was thick with sobs.

“Andrea.”

He rushed forward, then stopped a few steps away.

His eyes were red at the corners. His body was trembling.

“It was my fault. I should never have crossed Cameron. If I hadn’t, Andrea wouldn’t have been dragged into this. I’ll go beg Cameron right now. I’ll kneel to him. I’ll do whatever he wants. Just leave Andrea out of this.”

Just as he was about to drop to his knees, Renee grabbed him.

“You didn’t do anything wrong. The one at fault is that selfish, vicious Cameron. To avoid apologizing, he even used his own sister’s life as leverage. How impressive.”

She actually thought I had made Andrea sick with a fever?

Renee snorted.

“Fine. If he is willing to go this far, why should I hesitate? Close the door.”

She cast one cold glance at Andrea on the floor, then turned to leave.

I rushed over, stood in front of her, and shouted, “No, Renee, please! Please save my sister! She always saw you as her own sister. Could you really bear to do this?”

The moment I finished speaking, Renee stopped in her tracks.

A flash of hope passed through my eyes. I thought her conscience had finally awakened.

However, when she turned around, she said in a cold voice, “Who gave her this glass of water? Didn’t I say she was not to be given anything to eat or drink?”

The maid came in from outside.

“Ms. Austin, it was me. This young lady…”

Before she could finish, Renee cut her off.

“Remember who pays you. If I ever find out that you gave her anything again, you can pack your stuff and get out.”

A trace of sympathy flashed across the maid’s eyes, but she lowered her gaze and looked away.

She kicked the glass away hard.

The water splashed across Andrea’s sleeve.

The movement stirred Andrea awake. She let out a pained moan.

A crumpled piece of paper slipped from her arms.

It was my death certificate.

Renee’s gaze locked onto it. Her eyes widened.

She froze where she stood for several seconds. She was completely motionless.

Jacob saw it too.

His face went pale. He stepped forward.

“Could Cameron have made this on purpose to trick us? After all, we never received any notice of his death.”

Renee seemed jolted awake by his words.

When she looked at Andrea again, there was only irritation in her eyes.

“I didn’t realize this idiot was such a good actress. This death certificate could have appeared at any time, but it just had to show up right now.”

She cast one last glance at Andrea, who lay gasping on the floor, then turned away without hesitation.

“Leave her in there. As long as Cameron doesn’t show up, nobody opens that door.”

I was trembling.

Even though I was dead, I still felt my heart break.

I rushed over and dropped to my knees in front of her.

“No! Don’t do this! Please save my sister! She’s dying!”

The fever had been torturing Andrea relentlessly.

They would not even let her eat or drink.

Unfortunately, no one could hear me.

I could only watch helplessly as the door in front of me closed once again.

I stood there, spinning in place with panic.

Then, I heard a faint voice.

“Cameron.”

Andrea was calling for me.

I rushed over and saw that she had opened her eyes.

She stared in my direction. Her eyes were filled with tears.

“Cameron, is that you?”

I was just about to speak when she smiled faintly.

“I must’ve imagined it. Cameron hasn’t come back yet.”

She reached out her hand.

“Cameron, I’m in so much pain. I can’t hold on much longer.”

Then, she closed her eyes again.

This time, no matter how many times I called her name, she did not answer me.

On the other side of that closed door, I heard Renee speak to Jacob in a tone of tenderness I had never heard from her before.

“Don’t be scared, Jacob. I’m here. No one gets to bully you. I promise I’ll find him and make him kneel in front of you to apologize.”

I no longer felt anything when I heard that.

My heart had gone numb from the pain.

Before our parents died, Renee and I had grown up together as childhood sweethearts.

The year our parents died in the car crash, our family company was stolen by my uncle.

In my despair, Renee had taken my hand and promised to stay by my side forever.

I had thought that she meant it.

However, after Jacob appeared, her gaze shifted away from me.

He was the impoverished student my family had sponsored.

Even after my parents died and my uncle took over the company, I still scrimped and saved and set aside money to put him through college.

However, he told everyone that I had abused him and withheld his living expenses.

I became the villain in everyone’s eyes.

Even Renee gradually began to favor Jacob.

As I looked at Renee’s profile, curiosity suddenly rose in me.

When she learned that I had died, would she regret it at all?

Renee used every connection she had, but she could no longer find a trace of my existence.

That crumpled death certificate became the only clue.

At the hospital, the smell of disinfectant was sharp and suffocating.

Renee went to the doctor on duty. “Has anyone been brought in recently from the underground casino on the West Side?”

How ridiculous.

That underground casino had been Renee’s territory.

She could have gotten me out with a single word.

Instead, she let me suffer inside.

The doctor pushed up his glasses and thought for a moment.

“Yes. About five or six days ago, a young man was brought in. He was already too far gone when he arrived. It was horrific. Almost every bone in his body had been broken. All ten of his fingernails had been torn out, and there was not a single patch of unbroken skin left on him. In the end, he lost too much blood, and his organs failed. We did everything we could, but we couldn’t save him.”

Renee suddenly felt a sense of dread. Her fingertips went cold. “What did he look like?”

The doctor shook his head and sighed. “His face had been destroyed. It was impossible to tell. But he seemed like a pretty tough man. He never cried out once, not even at the end.”

“It couldn’t have been him.”

Renee cut him off sharply.

“He isn’t that tough. He couldn’t have endured that much.”

Renee tried desperately to convince herself, but deep down, something had begun to crack.

She left the hospital as if she were fleeing from something and drove back to the villa where Andrea was locked up.

She pushed the door open. Complete silence greeted her.

She hurried toward the basement. The iron door was left ajar.

Andrea lay curled in the corner. Her clothes had been torn and disheveled.

Dark bruises marked the exposed skin of her body.

Her arms were wrapped tightly around herself. Her eyes were empty. Her body would not stop trembling.

In front of her stood Jacob. His clothes were in disarray.

Anyone with eyes could see what had happened.

My eyes turned blood red. My reasoning shattered.

I wanted to tear the flesh from his bones and drink his blood.

Jacob hurried to explain. He said, “Renee, you have to believe me. I didn’t do anything. I was just too worried about her, so I came in to bring her some water. But she started taking off her clothes the moment I walked in.”

Andrea did not understand any of that. How could she have done something like this?

It was a lie anyone could have seen through at a glance, yet Renee believed him.

“Loose woman!”

She stepped forward and slapped Andrea hard.

Andrea was already weak from the fever and hunger.

The blow knocked her to the floor. Her forehead smashed hard against a shattered iron piece.

Andrea lay on the floor. She had lost consciousness entirely.

Finally, Renee panicked.

She ordered the bodyguards to carry Andrea to the hospital.

She had not expected to run into the men from the underground casino as soon as she arrived at the hospital.

“Ms. Austin, how do you know this girl?”

Renee leaned against the wall. Her fingers were trembling uncontrollably.

“What do you mean?”

One of the men licked his lips.

“You know, she might not have been right in the mind, but just to get back her brother’s ashes, she gave the boys a real treat. Shame about Jacob Murphy. Did not even last a few days before he kicked it. But this dumb girl? She could take it. We had fun with her for three days.”

“What in the world are you talking about?” Renee’s voice came out sharp and shrill.

The men at the casino looked at each other and let out mocking laughs.

“Ms. Austin, you must’ve forgotten. You were the one who personally brought Jacob to us. A debt had to be paid, fair and square. That kid was soft, though. He couldn’t take it, so he died. But this idiot was loyal. She insisted on getting that box of ashes back…”

“That’s impossible!”

She staggered backward and hit the wall.

Then, behind her, the light above the operating room went out.

The doctor walked out, removed his mask, and announced expressionlessly, “I’m sorry. She was brought in too late. The blood loss was severe, and combined with the high fever, her injuries were too extensive. We couldn’t save her.”