Chapter 4

Chloe chimed in from the side, "Yeah. You'll still get what's yours."

I let out a dry laugh and replied flatly, "Okay."

I didn't wait to see their reactions. I turned on my heel and headed back inside.

In the hallway, I ran straight into Evan, who was wearing a look of pure triumph. "Declan, look at that. I'm stripping everything away from you, piece by piece. Are you enjoying the show?"

I tugged at the corner of my mouth, too lazy to respond to his provocation. I rolled my eyes, slipped into my bedroom, and locked the door tightly behind me.

Evan didn't push further. I heard his footsteps fading as he headed downstairs.

The walls were thin. As I lay on my bed, his cheers drifted up clearly.

"Wow, Bethany! This is incredible. Did you really design and make this just for me?" he squealed.

Seeing his reaction, the Kane sisters felt a pang of pity and grew even more distressed over the hardships he had endured in the past. They chattered around him, promising that they would make it up to him and ensure his happiness from now on.

Listening to them was like swallowing broken glass.

They used to say those exact things to me. Now, they were just recycling that devotion for someone else.

And yet, they still claimed to care about me.

I suddenly found myself wondering how they would react once I had the surgery and my memory was wiped clean.

The next time I emerged from my room, the sprawling villa was silent. I was finally alone.

I felt a wave of relief. Their absence was the only thing that felt like peace.

I spent the day slowly packing the rest of my belongings, slowly moving them back to the old villa my grandparents had left me.

My strength was failing fast. Every small task required a long break. What should have been a quick move stretched late into the night.

The Kane sisters and Evan still weren't back by the time I finished. I had a follow-up appointment at the hospital the next morning, so I collapsed into bed and fell asleep instantly.

The next morning, I was jolted awake by a relentless string of notification pings.

I forced my eyes open and squinted at the screen, only to see dozens of photos of the Kane sisters in skimpy bikinis at the beach.

The last of my sleepiness vanished.

A message from Evan followed. "The Kane sisters are so sweet. I mentioned I'd never seen the ocean, so they dropped everything to bring me here.

"They're smoking hot, aren't they? Declan, how did you live with these three beauties for years and only see them as sisters? Why don't you let me teach you how to actually claim them?"

The sheer disrespect made my blood boil.

The Kane sisters treated him so well, yet he showed no gratitude at all.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to steady my rising temper.

I knew Evan was only doing this to provoke me. If I lashed out, the Kane sisters would tear into me the moment they got home.

In the end, I simply blocked Evan's number.

After that, I sat up and stretched. Sleep was out of the question now, so I decided to head to the hospital early.

My regular doctor was in surgery, so an intern took me for my CT scan.

He kept giving me strange looks. When I asked him what was wrong, he just shook his head.

Baffled, I finished the tests and headed back home.

As I climbed out of the car, a sudden spike of pain hit my head, and I nearly fell.

A hand caught my arm, steadying me. Before I could regain my balance, the bottle of targeted medicine the doctor had prescribed was snatched from my hand.

I looked up to see Evan. He was tossing the bottle in the air with a wicked glint in his eyes. He said nonchalantly, "Declan, I heard from a friend interning at the hospital that you've got a massive tumor in that head of yours. You're going to die if you don't get surgery soon, right?"