Chapter 3

Silas didn't seem to expect me to be so decisive. "Elara, what the hell is wrong with you? Your half-dead body can't give me anything right now. I'm just taking care of a man's normal needs on the side. Are you seriously going to blow this wildly out of proportion?!"

My only answer was silence.

This blatant dismissal shattered his pathetic ego. I heard his breath hitch, followed by a humiliated, defensive sneer.

"Fine! The engagement is off! Have it your way! With the way you look right now, you're nothing but a useless cripple no one would touch even if you begged on your knees!"

The word "cripple" acted like a poisoned blade, ruthlessly slicing open my ugliest scars.

Extreme humiliation made my entire body tremble. I dug my fingers into the edge of the wheelchair and bit my lip until it bled, fiercely fighting back any display of weakness.

I thought a broken engagement and a mutilated body were the end of my suffering in this family. Just as I was about to turn my wheelchair and leave for good, Seraphina's face suddenly went deathly pale.

She clutched her chest, gasping frantically for air as her body began to tremble violently. "Silas... it hurts so much... I can't breathe..."

"Stop faking it!" I roared, pushed past my absolute limit.

Smack!

Father, who had rushed over upon hearing the commotion, slapped me viciously across the face with brutal force. My wheelchair and I crashed heavily to the ground. My ears rang shrilly, and warm blood trickled down the corner of my mouth.

He towered over me, his gaze as cold as a viper's. "Seraphina just finished her transplant. Her body is far too weak to handle any stress! Someone, carry her to the emergency room immediately! Drag this cripple down to the underground medical center too. If the resuscitation requires it, draw her blood for backup at a moment's notice!"

Two massive mafia enforcers marched over, hauled me up from where I had fallen, and dragged me like a dead dog straight toward the estate's private underground medical center.

My shattered legs dragged across the floor, leaving two glaring trails of blood in my wake.

The medical center was bathed in blinding fluorescent light. Father, Brother, and Silas were all there. Off to the side lay Seraphina, breathing heavily through an oxygen mask.

"Hold her down," Father ordered ruthlessly.

I was forcefully thrown onto another freezing operating table, my wrists and ankles tightly secured by rough leather restraints.

"What are you doing?" My hollow eyes couldn't focus on anything, but my voice was surprisingly calm.

Brother snapped on a pair of sterile gloves and picked up a thick puncture needle, well over a dozen centimeters long. "Seraphina is having a severe rejection reaction. Your blood type and bone marrow are a perfect match for hers. Elara, this is your chance for redemption."

"Redemption?" I let out a low, mocking scoff. "What exactly do I still owe her? Was it my fault she got sick? Taking both my eyes wasn't enough, and now you have to drain every drop of my blood before you're finally satisfied?"

"Shut up!" Silas rushed over, violently pinning down my shoulders. "If you hadn't stolen her place, would she have suffered so much? What's the big deal about drawing some blood? Even your life belongs to the Koschei family!"

What's the big deal about drawing some blood?

Listening to their self-righteous, terrifyingly entitled tone of hatred, a wave of absolute exhaustion washed over me.

"Do it." I closed my eyes, giving up all resistance. "Drain every drop of blood in my body to save your precious girl. But once you're done, we are entirely even."

Brother walked behind me with that massive puncture needle. I assumed he would at least give me a shot of anesthesia, but a second later, a tearing, agonizing pain exploded from my spine without any warning!

"Ah—!" Unable to hold it back any longer, a blood-curdling scream ripped from my throat.

My entire body convulsed, launching upward as if struck by high-voltage electricity, only to be slammed right back onto the table by the leather restraints.

The sensation of a blunt blade ripping through flesh and a steel needle piercing into the bone marrow cavity was infinitely magnified. I could vividly feel my very life force being ruthlessly drained away, drop by drop, through that tube.

Pain. Unbearable pain.

Cold sweat instantly soaked through my clothes. My consciousness began to blur, and the voices around me faded into the distance.

[Detected Host experiencing extreme organ failure. Vital signs approaching zero. Death Escape progress bar: 100%. Initiating extraction protocol.]

[Countdown: 3, 2, 1. Extraction successful.]

As the System's icy prompt faded, I felt my soul sever itself from that broken, mangled shell. In that instant, all the pain vanished entirely.

I was finally free.