Once His Shadow, Now His Sentence

 A week before my wedding, Maximo Alvarez's deceased wife's sister, who suffered from torrential rain syndrome, forced my car to a stop at the bridge railing.

I crashed into her eighteen times at high speed.

When Maximo arrived with the ambulance, I was being dragged out of a pile of scrap metal.

He, however, pulled aside a modified Hummer with only the bumper missing.

He held the trembling Matilda Philips in his arms.

"Mr. Alvarez, your fiancée's condition is not good; she needs to be taken to the hospital immediately."

Maximo stopped my stretcher, quickly scanning my body. 

"There's not a drop of blood on her, just superficial injuries. Matilda suffers from torrential rain syndrome and the rain is getting heavier; her condition will worsen. Take her to the hospital first."

As I was left behind, I curled up and struggled to grab Maximo.

He frowned and grasped my hand. "Matilda didn't hit you on purpose; she was just having an episode. You're a doctor too; you should be considerate of your patients."

After saying that, he pulled out a letter of understanding from his pocket, held my limp hand and signed it.

"The next ambulance will be here soon, just hang in there."

——

I didn't make it to the next ambulance.

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself floating in mid-air.

Cold rain poured down on my neglected body. I tried to reach out and hug myself.

But my arm passed right through it.

I smiled bitterly.

So, I was dead.

Maximo was right. I was a doctor, so I knew exactly what that meant.

At 50 km/h, eighteen consecutive backward movements followed by a violent impact.

Matilda never intended for me to live.

But as the head of internal medicine in Harold City, he could easily determine that I only had superficial injuries with just a glance.

I shouldn't have had any illusions.

When it came to Matilda, everything else became unimportant.

Including my life.

In the distance, the ambulance siren grew closer.

The doctor and nurses jumped out of the ambulance and rushed towards me in the pouring rain. I watched my limp, noodle-like body being lifted into the ambulance.

Amidst the doctor's screams, the constant injections of adrenaline and the fluctuating defibrillator, nothing could prevent the electrocardiogram from flattening out.

The doctor roared, "Call the traffic police to clear the way and speed things up! Get the hospital ready for surgery immediately; the patient's condition is critical."

But three calls the nurse made to the hospital were rejected.

Her eyes reddened with anger. "Why? Isn't Dr. Terra Mr. Alvarez's fiancée? How can he allocate all the resources to a woman who hasn't even scratched her?"

She choked back tears, unable to continue, "Dr. Terra is dying." 

The entire ambulance crew fell silent.

They all knew that in the hospitals under the Alvarez Group, a private, VIP ward was always reserved for Matilda.

She was the younger sister of Maximo's deceased wife after all.

Having witnessed her sister's brutal death while trying to save her in a torrential downpour, she developed severe "torrential rain syndrome" from that experience.

Every time it rained heavily, she would have a seizure and lose control; only Maximo could calm her down.

And I, her fiancée, because of Matilda's repeated interference, had to stand up ten times before we could get our marriage certificate.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. "A drizzle triggers her seizure; a clap of thunder triggers her seizure—does she really only see you as her brother-in-law?"

Maximo was stunned when his hand struck me.

He looked away, his face stiff and said, "If you can't tolerate Matilda, this marriage isn't necessarily going to happen."

I looked at him, a sharp pain piercing my heart.

I desperately tilted my head back, trying to hold back my tears, but they still streamed down my face.

On the third day of Maximo's cold violence, I finally gave in and prepared a surprise for him.