Chapter 4
Elaine's POV
Everett stops when he hears me.
He stares at my face like he's looking for something. But I've already closed my eyes.
"What does that even mean?" He lets out a short, dismissive sound. "You'll be fine. I'll have someone look after you once the surgery's done."
Mom cuts in, impatient. "Can you hurry it up? Stop playing victim. Rosalie's waiting."
Dad nods. "The sooner this is done, the better."
Everett lets go and starts to turn away.
I open my eyes and look at his back. "Don't bother."
He glances over his shoulder like he's about to say something. But the gurney is already moving. The operating room doors swing shut behind me, and everything goes quiet.
Inside the OR, the surgeon frowns over my chart.
"Heart rate's low. Blood pressure's off. She's in bad shape — there's real risk here with a draw. Should we hold off and——"
"That's not your concern." Another voice cuts him off. "Rosalie's prepped and ready. Let's get started." A pause. "Also — Mr. Vane's orders. Take the Blood Core out while you're in there."
The surgeon's head snaps up. "That wasn't the plan. We said a blood draw. Why are we touching the Blood Core?"
"Mr. Vane's orders."
Silence. Then a long, low breath.
"...Get started."
I almost laugh.
So it was never just a blood draw.
The sedative spreads cold through my veins and my thoughts start slipping away.
I don't fight it.
The moment the scalpel breaks skin, something lifts. Like I've been carrying something unbearable for so long I forgot what it felt like to put it down. The pain, the exhaustion — all of it just falls away.
I float up.
Looking down, I see the woman on the table. Hollow-faced. Covered in wounds.
"Pressure's crashing!"
"Heart rate's spiking, we need to——"
"The Blood Core's shattered. There's no clean blood. It's all dead."
The voices wash together below me. I watch, calm.
It's no use.
My body has been waiting for this.
The line on the monitor goes flat.
The surgeon sets down his instruments. "Someone notify Mr. Vane."
Out in the hallway, Everett has his back to the OR, Mom and Dad on either side of him.
A doctor steps out of my operating room and moves toward him. "Mr. Vane. Your wife, she——"
"What is it?" Everett doesn't bother turning around. "Is she still on the table? Tell her to get up and go back to her room. We're busy."
"Sir, your wife——"
The doors across the hall burst open.
"Rosalie's surgery was a success!"
Everett spins around and walks straight toward them. Mom and Dad rush over. Whatever the doctor behind him was trying to say gets swallowed up in the noise.
"Rosalie, how do you feel?"
"Surgery went perfectly. Vitals are stable!"
"My baby's okay. She's okay!"
Everett takes Rosalie's hand, and the look on his face is pure relief.
I drift over and stop just beside him.
I reach out and try to touch his face. My hand passes right through him.
"Everett," I say, knowing he can't hear me. "I'm going now."
He shifts slightly, like something brushed past him, and pulls his collar a little closer. "Why is it so cold in here," he murmurs.
Then he turns back to Rosalie.
I lower my hand and take a step back.
So that's how it is.
Down the hall, the surgeon stands watching all of this. He sighs and turns back toward my OR.
On one side of the hallway, laughter. On the other, a light going out.
Nobody notices the gurney being wheeled out alone.
They forget about me completely.
Everett is at Rosalie's bedside every day. Mom and Dad are in and out, busy with everything around her. Not one of them thinks of me.
The day Rosalie's discharged, they fly out to Aurora Isle. Private jet, glacier lights, champagne on the water. Rosalie posts every day. "New beginnings."
Nobody knows the surgery was a lie from start to finish. The medical records, the test results — all of it bought and forged. The Blood Core deficiency, the near-death decline — it was all a performance, designed to use me up. My Blood Core, once they realized it had already shattered and was useless, got tossed in a corner of the supply room like it was nothing.
They come back from Aurora Isle a few days later.
The estate is quiet. Everett passes my room. Door closed, no sound. He stops and knocks twice. Nothing.
He frowns, picks up the communication stone, and calls the sanatorium.
The doctor's voice on the other end sounds off. "Mr. Vane——"
"Is Elaine there? I haven't seen her."
"Sir, your wife — she didn't make it out of surgery——"
"The hell she didn't."
He pulls in a breath. "Explain. Now."
"She passed on the table, sir. We tried to reach you. You didn't believe us. She's been in cold storage. It's been seven days."
Everett ends the call.
Dad leans out from the living room. "Who was that?"
"Nobody." Everett picks up his coat. "I need to go out."
By the time the carriage stops at the sanatorium, the sky has gone dark.
A doctor meets him at the entrance and leads him through the corridor, down into the lower level, toward a gurney in the corner. On it, a body under a white sheet.
