From inside the hospital room, despite her weakened body, Trinity came running out, her voice raw with desperation. “Nate! Are
you leaving me, too? Tegan is already gone. Do you want to lose me as well?”
Nathan stopped walking but didn’t turn around. “I told you before. The only person I’ve ever loved is Tegan. As for the kidneys I gave you, consider them repayment for the debt when you saved me years ago.”
With that, Nathan strode off without hesitation.
I clutched my chest, but I didn’t feel the slightest bit moved.
Love that arrived too late meant nothing at all.
Nathan spent hours searching along the road near the crematorium before finally spotting the shoebox Mom had dumped in a
trash heap.
Some of my ashes had spilled out onto the ground.
Nathan knelt down, carefully gathering every last bit with his hands and gently placing them into the urn Jake had paid an exorbitant amount of money for.
For the first time, Nathan, who was always strong and composed, held the urn in his arms, his eyes reddening. He whispered my name over and over.
I curled my lips into a sneer.
“Oh, this is just the beginning. You will be crying a lot more soon,” I thought.
Under Jake’s urging, Nathan finally returned to the estate with my ashes.
On the way, Jake told him the truth about my death.
1/2
Chapter 9
+15 Bonus
“Ms. Bartlett died from the pain of her illness. She suffered until she couldn’t take it anymore. She wasn’t sick as long as her sister, but because her condition wasn’t properly managed, it deteriorated quickly. That kidney transplant was her only chance to survive…”
At that, Jake trailed off, unable to continue.
Nathan suddenly raised his hand and slapped himself across the face hard. Then, he covered his face with both hands, his shoulders trembling as he let out muffled sobs.
Jake stared in shock at the self–inflicted slap, completely dumbfounded.
I, however, just watched coldly. Not a hint of emotion stirred in me.
Back at the estate, Nathan carried my ashes into my bedroom. The moment he walked in, his eyes landed on a letter I had left on my bed.
Next to it was a small button, the one I had accidentally torn from his shirt the day I had saved him from drowning years ago, along with his old phone.
Nathan set the urn down with great care. He picked up the button, studying it for a long time before clenching it tightly.
Then, he turned on the phone. Noticing the audio recording app, he instinctively pressed play.
The recording started. It was the conversation I had secretly recorded the last time Trinity had come to the estate.
I had made sure to fully charge the phone before I died. I wanted Nathan to hear, loud and clear, the true nature of the woman he had chosen, the woman he had been willing to let me die for.
A long silence followed.
His fingers trembled as he reached for the letter. He pulled out the paper inside and began reading.
I had written down every detail of how I had saved him back then, every part of the story that Trinity could never know.
The more Nathan read, the redder his eyes became.
At the very end of the letter, I had left a final note, as if mocking myself. “Eight years of love disappeared in the blink of an eye, swallowed by a lie. Nate, I never thought the day would come when I’d die at your
hands…”
D
