When he got back, Zach massaged the center of his brows because he was feeling tired.

He had accomplished a major task, but for some reason, he felt uneasy.

Then, as if he thought of something, he tapped on WhatsApp.

His finger hovered over our chat.

It still contained records of our argument.

One month ago, Zach suddenly said that he was willing to marry me.

Honestly, once I became an adult, we started sleeping together.

Over the years, Zach never admitted that I was his girlfriend. He only ever told the others that I was his sister, much less talked about marrying me.

But suddenly, he said that he was willing to marry me.

In retrospect, that was one of the few moments of happiness that I had ever had, but in the next second, he said something that completely destroyed that happiness.

“But on one condition: You have to donate a kidney to Catherine.”

Catherine Queen was the girl whom he loved for years.

I did not even know what I signed to Zach at that time, but when I was finally aware of what was going on around me, I found that I had already rejected his proposal.

Zach flew into a rage, and we got into a major argument.

“Stella Riverra, how could you be so selfish?!

“You’re the only match for Catherine, so just trust me! I’m the best nephrologist, I won’t let anything happen to you two.”

I signed to Zach that I did not want to donate my kidney.

But he shoved me away in disappointment.

“Stella, I’m disappointed in you. To you, you’re losing a kidney, but Catherine will be losing her life!

“You’re just as disgusting as your monster of a father! You should just die!”

Then, he turned away and left. No matter what I signed behind him, he never turned around to look, so he did not see what I signed.

[I’m sorry, Zach. It’s not that I don’t want to, but I only have one kidney left.]

Even though I felt utterly dejected because of what he had said, I still wanted to stay by his side while living and breathing until the day I died.

But as I thought about it at this moment, it would not have mattered even if Zach had known about it back then. He might not even have cared.

Right from the start, he hated me.

Because I had a hand in his mother’s death.

Zach and I were neighbors, and we grew up together.

I lost my mother when I was really young and lived with my alcoholic father.

Meanwhile, Zach’s parents divorced, and he lived next door to me with his gentle mother.

Zach’s mother loved me and would occasionally ask me whether I would become Zach’s wife.

Whenever she did that, Zach would be highly against it.

“Who’d want to marry a mute?!”

Even so, Zach always protected me.

When other people threw stones at me, ordered their dogs to bite me, or stole my stuff, he always ran over and fought against my bullies.

Even if he was battered and bruised all over, he still stood in front of me as my protector.

He said that he did not like me because I was mute, but he would always protect me because I was his star.

Then, one year, my father got into major debt and wanted to sell me because I was useless, but Zach’s mother discovered his plot.

She saved me, but my drunk father stabbed her thirteen times, and she never woke up again.

I would forever remember how Zach looked at me when I woke up in the hospital.

His eyes were full of despair and endless hatred.

“Why didn’t you die?! I hate you! I’ll forever hate you, Stella!”

In his rage, Zach slapped me.

He struck me so hard that I was dizzy from the blow, and I lost my hearing in my left ear because of it.

But it was also because of this slap that Zach stayed by my side.

Zach hated me, but he also felt guilty toward me.

Both of us lost our parents that night.

Since I was mute and deaf and since Zach’s mother said that I was the treasure she protected, Zach did not leave my side.

Instead, he took upon himself the responsibility of being my brother and brought me up, but I knew that he still hated me.

Over the years, whenever it was his mother’s death anniversary, he would get himself drunk and go alone to visit his mother.

I went with him once, but in his drunken state, he kicked me away.

He then grabbed my neck, and with a fearsome expression, said, “Stella, you’re not worthy of visiting my mother!”

But after he became sober, he hugged me and touched the bruises on my neck while apologizing to me. “I’m sorry, Stella. I just feel… really conflicted.”

I knew that.

He would even cover my face when he slept with me.

Honestly, I felt conflicted too.

I wanted to treat him as my brother and stay by his side forever, but things did not go my way.

After twenty years of being together, I still fell hopelessly in love with him, even though I knew that he would never love me.

Even when he said that he would marry me, it was on the condition that I would donate my kidney to the woman he truly loved.