Chapter 4

My nails dug into my palms. Closing my eyes, I nodded. For my first eighteen years, my dad raised me by taking those overseas security jobs that no one else would touch. No matter what, I had to keep him alive. I didn't know what Garrison said to Giselle, but she didn't come looking for me for a very long time. That rehab plan worked. My dad was finally able to open his eyes, though he still wore an oxygen mask. One day, my brother brought in a caregiver. "This is the person Garrison found to take care of your dad." With just one glance, I recognized her. The person wearing a mask and scrubs was Giselle. I stepped forward and ripped her mask off. I demanded sharply, "What are you doing here?" Seeing she was exposed, Giselle stopped pretending and sat down hard on the edge of the bed. "Vesper, I'm here to see your dad, of course. I heard he's getting better?" My brother let out a scoff. "Getting better? The specialists said he can hear people talk, but he can't handle any stimulation. One more shock and he's a goner." "Is that so..." Giselle dragged out her words, walked up to me, and gave me a shallow smile. "Vesper, you've been working so hard. Let me help you out, okay?" Saying that, before I could even react, she clapped her hands twice. Several men in dark suits walked into the room and pinned me hard against the wall. "Giselle, what are you doing?" As I struggled, I turned my head to look at my dad. I saw his eyes widen, staring intently at me, his lips trembling as they moved. Having studied medicine for so many years, I knew better than anyone: if that mask was off for even a minute longer, his blood oxygen would drop to a point of no return. The next second, Giselle ripped the oxygen mask right off his face. She leaned in close to his ear and yelled loudly while laughing, "You old geezer, you and your daughter are exactly the same. One lies here burning through my husband's money, and the other goes out climbing into someone else's husband's bed." "People like you deserve to be exposed to everyone." My dad's face abruptly changed, turning beet red. Trembling, he forced out two words. "Non... sense..." My brother immediately pulled up a video on his phone and held it in front of him. "Giselle isn't talking nonsense. This is the video of Garrison marrying her. It's Vesper who's clinging to someone else's husband." "Shut up!" "All of you, shut up! Dad, don't listen to their nonsense—" My voice was drowned out by the chaos. Giselle held up her phone and started a live stream, pointing the camera right at my dad's face. The security camera on the ceiling was recording too, but it had no audio, and no one was watching it in real-time. "Get away! Get away from him!" I screamed, struggling like a madwoman. But I was pinned firmly to the ground, unable to move an inch. All I could do was watch helplessly as my dad's hand slowly let go of the blanket. "Save him! Get a doctor! Corbin, I'm begging you!" I sobbed and screamed until my throat was raw. But all I got was a solid slap across the face. "Corbin? You don't deserve to call me that. A piece of trash like you doesn't deserve to be my sister." "From start to finish, Giselle is my only sister. If you hadn't shown up halfway and stolen her place, she would have married Garrison to begin with." "You got beaten up like that, and you still dare to call yourself clean? Your dad dying is what you deserve." Blood dripped from the corner of my mouth, drop by drop. My vision kept going dark. That year, when he had a massive hemorrhage, his blood contained rare antibodies. The dozen or so bags sent from the blood bank were all mismatches. When the matching reports were handed to the family, mine was the only one that matched. It turned out I had raised a snake that would bite me back. *Beep, beep, beep—* The monitor let out a piercing alarm. My dad's pupils slowly dilated, and the hand gripping the blanket fell limp. "Dad—" I slammed into them like a maniac, knocking them away. But it was too late. I rushed over and locked my hands tightly around Giselle's throat, my eyes bloodshot. "I'm going to kill you... I'm going to kill you..." The next second, a sharp pain shot through my chest. A knife pierced right through my chest, and blood splattered all over my face. I froze for a moment and instinctively called out, "Garrison..." Meeting Garrison's despairing gaze. I turned my head and collapsed limply to the floor.