Chapter 3

That night, Jody said that her heart hurt, and the cardiology department descended into chaos.

As I lay in bed and listened to the chaos outside, my thoughts drifted back to the past.

One year ago, I was told that I was a fake heiress, and Jody was brought back to the family.

Since she had suffered greatly while living outside, Seth gave her all his love to make it up to her. “Elena, Jody’s suffered for more than ten years outside. We owe her too much. You need to be more accommodating of her.”

Meanwhile, Julius’ family pressured him into marrying Jody instead of me. Julius decided that he would do whatever Jody asked because he believed that if he fulfilled every one of Jody’s requests, she would bless our relationship.

That was when she started becoming even more brazen. She took my room and smashed all the gifts my parents had given me over the years.

During winter, she pushed me into ice water, and I suffered from heart failure.

Seth and Julius told me that they had their own difficulties and told me to be more tolerant.

However, they forgot that once trust was broken, it could not be mended. I did not want to wait any longer.

At that moment, Seth rushed into my ward with fury burning in his eyes. Without another word, he walked to my bedside table and started searching around.

“What are you doing?” I asked weakly.

Seth ignored me and finally found a bottle of pills from among all the stuff inside the drawer.

He grabbed my collar and smashed the bottle against my face. “Elena, you’re a monster! There’s poison in Jody’s soup, and it’s from this, isn’t it?! You wanted to poison her because you couldn’t kill her!”

My vision blurred from the impact.

As I stared at the bottle of pills rolling on the floor, I felt immense sadness surge in my heart. Sarah had bought that medicine for me. Without the pacemaker, my heart could stop at any time.

Honestly, I did not care anymore, but Sarah had insisted on begging for help and bought the medicine so I could continue to live.

“That’s my medicine,” I said with difficulty.

“You’re still lying?!” Seth burned in rage and slapped me. “Jody’s caregiver saw you sneaking around in her room, and you’re saying that you didn’t do it?!”

My head snapped to the side, and I tasted blood in my mouth.

I did not even have the strength to get out of bed. How could I possibly poison Jody?

Also, the medicine’s name and effects were clearly written on the bottle, but Seth chose to ignore it. He only believed what he wanted to believe. Julius was the same.

I heard rapid footsteps in the corridor.

Julius stormed over. When he saw how pathetic I looked, pity flashed in his eyes, but he squashed it down. “Jody finally managed to survive. Are you only going to be satisfied if she’s dead?!”

I stared at Seth.

For a moment, I felt like I had returned to that winter day from ten years ago.

Seth shielded me and was bleeding. He chased away the hooligans who had tried to hurt me. He smiled, patted my head, and said, “Don’t be scared, Elena. I’ll protect you for the rest of my life.”

The very same person who had said that he would protect me forever threw a document in my face. “Elena, Jody is my real sister, and we owe her more than ten years of love and care. Since you refuse to get along with Jody, we won’t tolerate you any longer! This is a declaration of severance. Sign it, and we will no longer care about your survival.”

He practically spat out the words but did not even hand me a pen. He was certain that I was going to beg him for forgiveness, just like in the past. I simply stared at the document quietly.

“Sure.”

Since I did not have a pen, I bit down on my index finger and signed my name with my blood. I even left a thumbprint behind.

Seth’s eyes went wide with shock as he stared at me.

“I only…” His mouth moved as if he wanted to say something more, but I could no longer hear him.

A searing pain tore through my heart, and my vision spun.

Then, there was only darkness.

“24 hours remaining…”

Just one day left.