Chapter 2

"I can't believe you were hiding something like this, Neal!" Tracy shrieked. "Did you just want to sit back and watch Gavin suffer? How could you be so vicious?"

Me? Vicious?

Despair felt like a tight hand closing around my throat.

Years ago, when I first received the heart transplant, Tracy had wept and sobbed that she didn't care about anything else as long as I survived. But now, she was perfectly fine with watching me die over a common cold.

The last of my gathered strength exploded in that moment. I lunged at Gavin, throwing my weight forward and smashing my fist into the hand warmer pressed against his cheek.

"You don't have the right to use my things!" I roared.

The hand warmer exploded, and the scalding liquid inside made him shriek in pain.

Amid Tracy's horrified screams, I turned toward the flashing camera lens and rasped, "Keep the livestream running! I want the whole world to watch how you two stole my life just to treat his cold!"

The second the words left my lips, Tracy lunged at me with a screech and tried to smash the controller like she had gone mad.

"Neal! Do you really have to destroy everything before you'd stop?"

I threw my body over the controller and desperately protected it, while she clawed at my arms viciously, leaving bloody gashes.

Suddenly, my artificial heart emitted a sharp, erratic alarm, and a violent spasm of pain sent me curling tightly on the floor.

Gavin covered his face and cowered behind Tracy's back. His voice was full of wounded grievance, though it carried the hint of a smile.

"Forget it, Tracy… Neal is doing this just because he's in too much pain," he said. "It's all my fault. I shouldn't have gotten sick…"

Meanwhile, viewers flooded the livestream with supportive comments.

"This guy is terrifying. I can't believe he actually hit someone."

"He doesn't look like someone whose heart is failing at all. What a drama queen."

"My heart breaks for Gavin. He's burned but still worried about the livestream."

Staring at the rolling comments, Tracy seemed to draw strength from the crowd's support. She whipped around and snapped at me, "Look at that! Look who's actually making a scene here!

"You had plenty of strength to throw a punch and surely didn't look like someone on the brink of death. Who are you trying to fool with this pathetic act?"

It was laughable.

Every ounce of energy I had used to fight back was at the cost of permanent, irreversible damage to my cardiac cells.

But I couldn't say a word. All I could do was press my hand hard against my chest and feel my life drain away as the last percentages of the battery ticked down.

Standing behind Tracy, Gavin flashed me a triumphant grin and softly said, "Maybe… Maybe I should just give the battery back to Neal, even if it means I might get pneumonia…"

She immediately cut him off. "Absolutely not! You're getting your injection today, no matter what!"

With that, she shut the bedroom door and turned the lock from the outside, leaving me in the room while the camera continued to stream.

Sneering, she called out through a crack in the door, "Since you love streaming live so much, let's let the whole Internet see how the top graduate of a military academy fakes an illness just to gain sympathy!"

No! If I stayed locked in here, I would die!

I crawled toward the door with great difficulty and used the last of my strength to bang against it. But Tracy cracked it open an inch and stomped down hard on my fingers hooked around the doorframe.

"Ah…"

A sharp, excruciating pain forced a ragged gasp from my throat.

The comments were still rolling at a frantic pace.

"Good job, Tracy! A man like him needs to be taught a lesson!"

"Gavin looks so pale. Hurry up and get him out of there!"

Right on cue, Gavin coughed and softly said, "Don't do that to Neal… It hurts me to see him like this."

But the look he gave me was filled with pure mockery.

Just as my consciousness began to fade, he suddenly crouched down and whispered in a voice only I could hear, "Do you really think Tracy doesn't know what happens when you turn on power-saving mode? I told her everything, and she thinks trading your life for my health is a bargain."