Chapter 4

Estelle's POV

A man and a woman, laughing softly together behind a door left ajar.

I stand in the cold hallway, listening to the man who swore just hours ago that he'd come stay with me, now tangled up in bed with another woman.

It's almost funny. Our mate bond isn't even dissolved yet, and he already couldn't wait.

My hand curls slowly into a fist at my side.

"Estelle?" Callum's voice comes from behind me, wary. "What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?"

I turn around and let out a cold laugh. "What am I doing?"

Before the words even finish, I kick the door open.

Under the warm yellow light, the two bodies tangled on the bed freeze. Lila grabs frantically for the blanket. Rhett's face goes slack with shock.

"My mate," I say, loud, "is in bed with my sister. Callum, you tell me. What am I doing?"

Callum freezes where he stands, his face going pale, then red.

The shouting wakes the whole house. Sylvia and Everett rush in, throwing on robes, and their faces change the second they see what's happening in the room.

"Estelle, calm down—" Rhett scrambles to pull on a robe and hurries toward me, trying to stop me. "It's not what it looks like. Lila's scared of the dark at night, I was just—"

"Just taking your clothes off to keep her company in the dark?" I look at him and almost want to laugh.

"Enough!" Sylvia cuts in sharply, but it's aimed at me. "The whole house is up in the middle of the night! Lila just got better, she can't handle this kind of stress!"

Everett's face darkens too. "Family business stays in the family. You're the older sister, act like it."

I look at them. They caught the two of them in the act, and the first thing on their minds is still how to smooth it over for those two.

That's when Lila, curled up in the corner of the bed, suddenly starts gasping hard.

She grabs at the front of her shirt with one hand, her face going white, her body sliding down as it convulses. "Mom... I... I can't breathe... my sister... she's so mean to me... it hurts so bad..."

"Lila!" Someone cries out, and the four of them, tense and ready to fight each other a second ago, scramble into chaos.

Sylvia rushes to the bed. "The rejection's flaring up again! Quick, get her to the infirmary!"

Rhett scoops Lila up and bolts for the door without looking back. Everett and Callum are right behind him, their footsteps fading fast.

The room feels huge and empty again. Just me, alone.

The whole thing, catching them together, the excuses, the yelling, gets brushed aside like it was nothing, like a bad joke.

In their eyes, everything I felt, my dignity, the betrayal I saw with my own eyes, none of it weighs as much as one of Lila's episodes.

Not long after, footsteps come rushing back. Rhett, Sylvia, and Callum.

Rhett grabs my shoulders and pushes me back onto the bed without asking. "Don't move. Lila's rejection is bad, she needs a transfusion. Your blood type matches hers. You're the only one who can save her."

Sylvia pulls on gloves and comes over. The cold needle pierces my vein, and dark blood runs down the tube, drop by drop, into a bag with Lila's name on it.

Four hundred, six hundred, eight hundred. The first bag fills, and Sylvia swaps it out for a second one without missing a beat.

"One bag should be enough." Rhett stands off to the side, frowning slightly, hesitating even as he says it.

"Get an extra one ready." Sylvia doesn't even look up. "Lila's downstairs and unstable. If we need more, we can't keep running back up here."

Callum shoots me a cold glance. "She heals fast. This is nothing. She's the one who hurt Lila in the first place. Call it making up for it."

While he's talking, Sylvia's already pressing the warm bag into Callum's arms, and the three of them hurry out the door, heading downstairs to the emergency room.

The door shuts behind them.

The room goes quiet fast, nothing left but the low hum of the machines and the soft sound of blood dripping into the bag.

I lean back against the cold bed and close my eyes slowly.

Dizziness from the blood loss washes over me in waves, my limbs going cold and numb. But my heart has never felt this calm.

I pull the silver dagger from my sleeve, the one I'd had ready and waiting.

That's enough. I've played this part for them long enough. This is where it ends.

"Goodbye."

...

A few hours later.

"One bag was plenty to save Lila. Why'd she need a second one?" Callum pushes the door open, impatient. "Mom, pull the needle out already. She's still useful."

"Fine, pull it." Sylvia follows behind him, her face dark. "But this time, she went too far. Once Lila's stable, we're going to have a real talk about this."

Everett lets out a cold snort. "Ungrateful, through and through."

The second the words leave his mouth, Callum, walking in front, stops dead in his tracks.

Whatever they were about to say catches in their throats, all at once.

On the bed, my body lies still.

A silver dagger sits buried straight in the center of my chest.

And around the wound, thin wisps of white smoke rise, hissing softly as flesh burns.