Chapter 2

JENNIFER'S POV

Slowly, Damian turned toward me. There were tears welling up in my eyes but in his there was nothing except coldness.

"You're making things up" he said, his voice flat and emotionless. "Let me guess, what's it this time? Another lie? Another trick to get my attention?"

Every word felt like a knife twisting deeper into my chest. I tightened my grip around the medical report and took a shaky breath, forcing myself to stay calm.

"Damian, I'm not lying. I have the repor.." Before I could finish, his phone rang.

He glanced at the caller ID and answered it without another look at me.

"Mm... I'll be there." The call lasted only a few seconds without saying another word to me, he turned around and walked outside.

I stood there silently, my hand slowly falling back to my side. When I turned around, I found Vivian standing a few steps away.

She looked at me with an expression full of fake sympathy, the corners of her lips curling ever so slightly.

"Jen," she said softly, "I know you're upset about donating your blood to me."

She slowly walked closer.

"But if you didn't want to do it, you could've just told me." She sighed as if she were the victim. "Why pretend to be sick? Do you know how guilty that made me feel? I kept thinking I had done something to upset you."

A sharp pain shot through my abdomen. I instinctively pressed a hand against it, my face turning pale.

The doctor had told me not to put myself under any stress right now. I didn't even have the strength to argue with her. So, I didn't say a single word.

Suddenly, my eyes fell on the necklace around Vivian's neck. Same beautiful dark red ruby pendant.

My breath caught in my throat. That necklace was the only thing I had from my real family.

The only thing that solely belonged to me and the only thing that had ever truly mattered.

"That necklace..." I pointed at the ruby hanging around her neck, my voice shaking with anger. "Where did you get it from, Vivian?" I asked, unable to keep the fury out of my voice.

Vivian lowered her eyes to the pendant before smiling innocently.

"Oh, this?" she said as if it were nothing. "I saw it in your room one day and kind of liked it, so I took it." She shrugged casually before adding with a small laugh, "Well... I guess I should say Damian gave it to me."

She gently played with the ruby between her fingers.

"I asked him if I could keep it, and he said it was just a cheap piece of jewelry." She smiled proudly. "He even told me I could wear it for as long as I wanted and throw it away once I got bored. You know..." She looked at me with a victorious smile. "He said I deserve much prettier jewelry than this."

Cheap?

That was what Damian had called it just some cheap piece of jewelry. I had never told Damian that it was the only thing I had left from my birth family.

But I had told him many times how much that necklace meant to me. How precious it was yet he still gave it away without a second thought.

Without thinking any further, I stepped toward Vivian and reached for my necklace.

"Give it back," I said, my voice trembling. "It doesn't belong to you."

Vivian looked at me for a second before the corners of her lips slowly curled into a smirk.

"Oh? You want it back?" she asked sweetly. Before I could react, she yanked the chain off her own neck.

The next second, she deliberately let it fall onto the floor. The ruby pendant struck the tiles with a sharp clink.

"No!" I gasped and immediately bent down to pick it up. Just as my fingertips were about to reach it, Vivian suddenly stepped on the back of my hand.

A sharp pain shot through me.

"Ouch... Jen, be careful," she said with fake concern, yet instead of moving away, she deliberately pressed her heel down even harder.

I winced in pain, trying to pull my hand back. The very next second, Vivian shoved me hard in the abdomen.

My already weakened body lost its balance.

I stumbled backward before my abdomen slammed directly against the sharp edge of the corridor bench.

"Ah..."

A cry escaped my lips. The pain was immediate and unbearable, spreading through every part of my body.

It felt as if my entire abdomen had been ripped apart. For a moment, I couldn't do anything except clutch my stomach tightly, my entire body trembling as wave after wave of pain crashed through me. Every breath burned, and the doctor's words echoed relentlessly in my mind.

No stress.

No injuries.

Your body can't take much more.

Then suddenly we heard hurried footsteps echoing through the corridor.

Before I could even lift my head, Vivian suddenly dropped to the floor a few feet away from me. The tears in her eyes appeared almost instantly as she looked at me with a frightened expression.

"Jennifer..." she cried, her voice shaking. "I only wanted to talk to you. Why would you push me? I know you're upset, but I never thought you'd hate me this much."

Her sobs filled the corridor. Anyone who walked by would think she was the victim.

My vision was already beginning to blur.

For the first time in years...

I silently prayed.

Just this once...

Please look at me.

Just once... see me.

The next second, he appeared. His eyes swept across the scene, lingering on Vivian sitting on the floor with tears streaming down her face then they landed on me.

"Jennifer." My name left his lips like a blade of ice.

"Vivian is still recovering." His face darkened with disappointment. "She's your sister. How could you do something like this to her?"

I parted my lips.

"I... I didn't..." The words barely escaped before another sharp pain tore through my abdomen.

Damian didn't wait to hear the rest and rushed straight past me.

Without hesitation, he pulled Vivian into his arms, checking her over with a worried expression.

"Did you get hurt?" he asked softly, brushing a strand of hair away from her face.

Vivian bit her lip and shook her head.

"I'm fine... I'm just worried about Jennifer." The concern in her voice sounded so convincing that even I almost believed it. Damian let out a relieved breath before wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"I'll take you to the nurses." He guided her away carefully, as though she were made of glass.

Not once did he turn around to look at me. I watched his back disappear down the corridor.

The man I had loved for years never even realized I was the one lying there in pain.

A bitter smile tugged at my lips. Maybe the doctor was wrong. Maybe I hadn't only been dying for the last three months.

A part of me had been dying ever since I married Damian.

The ringing in my ears grew louder and louder until it drowned out every other sound. The corridor spun before my eyes.

Darkness slowly swallowed my vision, my legs finally gave out beneath me.

And I collapsed onto the cold hospital floor.