Chapter 1

When the car crashed, I took the brunt of the deadly, mangled steel for my brother, Damon, letting half of my face be sheared off and my spine destroyed.

When I woke up in the intensive care unit, he mercilessly tossed an Engagement Termination Agreement onto my hospital bed.

"You're disfigured now, practically a paralyzed cripple. Give Julian up to Lily."

"She's beautiful, healthy, and she's always been in love with him. Having her take your place at the wedding is the best option right now."

The hospital room door wasn't fully closed. I could clearly hear him and our adopted sister, Lily, whispering out in the hallway.

"Damon, you deliberately caused that crash just so I could replace her in the marriage alliance. What if she finds out?"

Damon's tone was indifferent. "She grew up stealing the spotlight as the family heir. Giving Julian to you is the least she can do. Once she signs the papers, I'll put her in the best private nursing home. Consider it compensation."

I bit down hard on my cracked lips. Tears smashed against the deep, bone-exposing lacerations on my face, burning so intensely it made me want to carve the flesh right off.

Lily's sweet voice drifted in: "I'll make sure to compensate her in the future, too."

But Damon, even if I don't sign, you'll both get exactly what you want very soon.

Because the doctor just told me that my body has gone into multiple organ failure due to the severe trauma. I only have a few days left to live.

.....

Not long after the chilling whispers outside subsided, the door to the ward was pushed open again.

Damon walked in. The car crash that nearly took my life had left nothing but a superficial scrape on the back of his hand.

Because in that split second when the truck slammed into us, I hadn't hesitated to shield him with my entire body.

"Sloane, just sign it." Damon walked up to the bed and handed me a cup of water.

"This crash was an accident, no one wanted it to happen. But look at yourself now—disfigured, your spine shattered. The Vanstone family will never allow a monster to become their matriarch. Stepping aside for Lily to secure the interests of both the Vanstones and the Rockefellers is the only thing you can do now."

An accident? I forced my only intact eye open, staring at him unblinkingly.

He was the one who insisted on a sudden detour to check out the venue today. Thinking back to the moment the truck barreled toward us, he clearly had enough time to turn the steering wheel and swerve. But he didn't.

Combined with the conversation I had just overheard, the pieces slammed together into a chilling truth.

He truly wanted me dead so Lily could take my place and marry Julian with zero obstacles.

"Was the crash... really an accident?" I rasped, my voice sounding like grinding sandpaper. The effort pulled at the lacerations on my face, sending agonizing tremors through my entire body.

Damon's expression stiffened for a second before he let out a cold sneer. He made no effort to hide the thick disgust in his voice:

"An accident? You're better off thinking of it as karma. Sloane, this is what you owe this family!"

I knew he hated me.

Five years ago, because of my stubborn tantrum to see the Northern Lights, our parents got into a massive pileup while rushing to meet me. They both died on the spot. From that day on, the doting brother who used to carry me on his shoulders and love me more than life itself died with them.

To punish me, he brought home Lily—an orphan our parents had sponsored—and formally adopted her. From then on, Lily filled the role of the beloved younger sister, becoming the apple of his eye, while I became the sinner who bore the brunt of all his resentment.

Whatever Lily wanted, Damon forced me to hand over. Haute couture dresses, heirloom jewelry, even the Ivy League early admission spot I had worked so hard to secure.

Driven by the suffocating guilt over our parents' deaths, I swallowed it all. I naively believed that as long as I was obedient enough, I would eventually win back my brother's love.

But now, for Lily's sake, he had engineered a car crash to kill me and was trying to steal my fiancé of five years!

"I won't sign." I gritted my teeth, spitting the words out one by one. Even though my heart was completely numb from the pain, I absolutely refused to cave.

"Sloane!" Damon clearly hadn't expected me to fight back. His face turned a furious, livid shade.

A sharp, brutal slap landed squarely on my lacerated face. My ear rang violently, and the thick, metallic taste of blood instantly pooled in the corner of my mouth.

"Don't push me! You really think you have any right to negotiate right now?" he roared in exasperation. "You're nothing but a dying piece of trash lying in a bed!" He forcefully grabbed my right hand, shoving the fountain pen into my fingers.

I fought back with every last ounce of strength left in my broken, mangled body. The sheer force of my struggle sent the pen clattering to the floor. Ink bled across the tiles into a dark, ugly stain.

I glared at him rigidly. "Even if I die, I will never give Julian to Lily."

Damon laughed, a dark, vindictive sound. "Good. Great. Since you've got so much spine, you can just lie here and rot!"

He turned, striding to the door. Ripping it open, he bellowed at the nurses in the hallway, "Without my signature, no one is allowed to give her any form of painkillers! Transfer her to a general ward!"

The door slammed shut.

I lay in the hospital bed, tears silently mixing with the blood as they dripped onto the pristine white pillow.

Damon thought the excruciating agony of being denied painkillers would break me, forcing me to ultimately surrender.

What he didn't know was that the pathology report the doctor had delivered just moments ago stated clearly: due to severe infection, my organs were in an irreversible state of total failure.

I already had only a few days left to live.