Chapter 3

My body lay quietly on the cold operating table, my chest cut open, and my beating heart gone.

My brother remained glued to the spot outside Lucia's door, not moving an inch.

A nurse who was on her way to move a body rushed down the hallway. She was stopped by Vincenzo's cold voice.

"You, come here and watch this window. Don't take your eyes off it for a second. I need to use the restroom."

The nurse looked troubled. "But Don, the donor in the OR who just gave her heart..."

Vincenzo irritably loosened his tie. "She saved my sister's life, and I will personally arrange her funeral. Just watch the room for now."

After giving the order, he turned and walked toward the restroom. For some reason, his hands were actually shaking a little.

He didn't return until half an hour later, arriving right when the hospital staff changed shifts.

After the staff finished their shifts, they went to eat. The entire ICU area was left with only a few bodyguards.

Meanwhile, my poorly stitched body was dumped in the freezing hallway outside the morgue like trash. No one remembered me.

I had wanted to die with dignity, but I really looked awful right now.

Not long after, a trusted soldier walked over quickly and handed him a covered food tray.

"Don, this is the dessert and soup that Miss Lucia asked the kitchen to prepare for you before her surgery."

Only then did Vincenzo's gaze shift away from the girl on the bed.

He rubbed his tired eyes and looked down. He saw a note with a faint scent of perfume stuck to the tray.

A bit of warmth finally appeared in his dark eyes.

"She was still worrying about whether I ate before her surgery."

The elegant handwriting on the note was quite long. He read it word for word, as if reading a sacred contract.

By the end, his eyes actually watered.

[Brother, the surgery should be over by now. Did you stay up until your eyes were red just to keep me company again? Please eat all of this. When I wake up, I'm going to make sure you eat on time every day. Your health is more important than anything.]

He wiped his eyes with his thumb and actually stood there in the hallway, eating the dessert.

Just as he threw the empty container in the trash, Aldo called again.

"I sent you Eden's room number. Go take a look. I have other things to handle on my end."

Those words were like a match, reigniting Vincenzo's anger.

"Is she throwing another tantrum? Doesn't she know I'm busy today? Did she talk you into saying this? If something really happened to her, tell her to crawl over here and find me herself!"

"Before Lucia opens her eyes, even if the sky falls, I won't let her out of my sight!"

"Aldo, for the sake of your friendship with my father, I'll let this slide one last time. My biological sister only causes trouble for me when I'm busy. But my adopted sister remembered to send me food before going into surgery. She was worried I would go hungry. Do you still think Eden deserves to be the Principessa of this family?"

The call ended with a violent hang-up. It was the first time since he took power that he had lost his temper so badly at this family elder.

The irony was, I was the cause of it yet again.

But it didn't matter anymore. Once he saw the empty hole in my chest, he wouldn't need to vent his rage on me ever again.

Vincenzo glanced at the number on the screen, swiped his finger, and deleted the message.

He turned around to smoke at the end of the hallway, passing by my old hospital room with no expression on his face.

As he passed the closed door, he paused and glanced at it.

I remembered when I had a fever at eight, Vincenzo stayed awake by my bed for two nights. Back then, my slightest cough sent him into a panic.

Now, with undisguised contempt in his eyes, he bit his cigar and scoffed, "What a drama queen."

My heart jumped into my throat. If he just pushed that door open right now, he would see the things I left by the bed, and he would know that I didn't lie to him this time.

But he had no intention of pushing the door open at all.

The disappointment piled up too high. I floated numbly in midair, left with nothing but the dead silence and bitterness of having my heart hollowed out.