Chapter 1

Tracy Maddox lunged forward and tried to snatch the controller from my hands to stop the data upload.

When she realized it required my voice authentication, she violently grabbed me by the throat and tried to force me to speak.

"Neal Olson! Do you really have to make such a big deal out of nothing? It's just a battery, so why are you even calling the R&D center and talking about attempted murder? Can you afford the consequences if Gavin's treatment gets delayed over this?"

I gritted my teeth as the low-battery alarm on my artificial heart emitted a piercing shriek, which made every passing second feel like a lifetime.

"I'm sorry, Neal," Gavin Spade chimed in.

He pretended to play the peacemaker, though his voice dripped with obvious smug satisfaction. "I know you hate me… but Tracy did that livestream just to raise money for my treatment…"

Tracy immediately shook me off and turned to comfort him. "You don't need to apologize to him, Gavin. You're an actual doctor, so you can't possibly misdiagnose a medical condition, can you?"

Then, she spun around and snapped at me, "Drop the pathetic act, Neal. I know just how fit you are. You graduated top of your class at the military academy, so you surely have no problem holding on for a little longer.

"Gavin is a doctor, and he has more professional judgment than any of us. He said a few minutes of cardiac arrest is well within your body's tolerance threshold.

"Yes, I might have given him the battery first, but he was already showing early signs of heart palpitations and shortness of breath, so he needed his medication at once.

"Besides, your artificial heart has an emergency power-saving mode, doesn't it? It can maintain your baseline blood flow for at least four hours once you switch it off. The only drawback is a few days of bed rest afterward."

I stared at the charging port, which was intentionally drenched in water, and suddenly chuckled.

Power-saving mode? That mode kept me alive at the cost of permanent, irreversible cardiac cell death.

With great difficulty, I rolled onto my side and dug into a hidden compartment in the headboard to pull out a mini portable spare battery.

Just as my fingertips were about to touch the charging port, Tracy snatched it out of my hand.

"A wireless charger! Perfect for Gavin's hand warmer!"

She efficiently ripped open the packaging and shoved it into Gavin's hands.

The special battery model was successfully matched to my body after multiple grueling surgeries.

Before leaving the factory, I had adamantly insisted on getting a duplicate for emergencies. But back then, Gavin had scoffed at the idea and mocked me for being paranoid about dying, claiming that modern technology wouldn't fail easily.

In the end, I stubbornly ensured that there was a spare. But now, when I desperately needed it to stay alive, he was enjoying my life-saving equipment and treating it like garbage.

Gavin intentionally pressed the heated hand warmer against his cheek and let out a satisfied sigh. "Thanks, Tracy. This feels so warm…"

I was too weak to make a sound. All I could do was lock my eyes onto the syringe on the nightstand. It contained a high-dose shot of epinephrine, which might buy me some time.

But the moment my gaze flicked toward it, Tracy bolted over. She didn't reach for it; instead, she violently knocked the syringe onto the floor.