Chapter 2

My body felt as if someone had taken me apart and snapped me back together wrong, bone by bone, joint by joint. I coughed and spat blood as consciousness dragged me up from the dark.

A white ceiling came into view. The sharp smell of antiseptic flooded my senses. I was in a hospital ward.

Voices echoed from the hallway. Amber's voice cut through them all, loud and theatrical. "It hurts so bad, Rayden! Did I break a rib or something? How else could it hurt this much?"

Rayden groaned. "The doctor said nothing's wrong, didn't he? But my head hurts like hell too."

Amber clung to his arm, her tone turning syrupy. "I wanted to stay hospitalized so I could film a ward vlog for my fans, but that annoying doctor said there were no beds and refused."

The curtain was yanked aside.

Rayden strode in and rapped his knuckles against the metal railing of my bed. "Since you're awake, stop playing dead. Get up and give the bed to Amber. Didn't you hear her?"

He did not care that I was injured. He seized my arm and dragged me off the mattress.

Pain detonated through me, and black crept in at the edges of my vision.

He flung me into the hallway as if I weighed nothing. I hit the floor hard. He stood over me, looked down, and said coldly, "Don't forget. You still owe Amber a life."

"I don't," I said.

Amber was my cousin. Years ago, a house fire tore through our home. Her father ran back inside to save people and was crushed by a falling beam. He died in the flames.

From that day on, my brothers decided I owed her a life. They said that if not for me, Amber would still have a father.

However, I had escaped the fire on my own. The people my uncle had saved were my brothers, not me.

None of that ever mattered. Whenever the subject came up, they repeated the same verdict. I owed her, and I always would.

Thus, I became her shield. Year after year. I lived like something half-dead. They claimed the moral high ground and accepted gratitude for it.

Blood surged up again. I coughed, and red splattered across the floor.

Inside the ward, Amber shrieked, "Oh my god, what's happening? I can't breathe."

She gasped and cried out, "Is this hospital haunted? Where is Viola? Nelson, hurry and drag her back in. If there's a ghost, let it take her life instead."

Nelson grabbed me under the arms and hauled me back onto the bed.

Right on cue, the nurse arrived for rounds. She checked my vitals, frowned, and pushed a painkiller into my IV.

Darkness swallowed me almost at once. The last thing I heard was Amber's relieved sigh. "I knew it. As soon as she came back, I felt better. She's really tough, huh?"

-

I stayed hospitalized for a full month before they finally discharged me.

My fourth brother, Stefan, came to pick me up. His expression was cold. He was famous worldwide as a piano prodigy, always touring and rarely home.

"Today is the anniversary of Amber's father's death," he said. "Justin told me to bring you along. We're going to pay our respects together."

He turned and walked ahead without waiting, moving so fast he seemed determined to lose me.

I dragged my bad leg after him, my luggage biting into my hand.

All four brothers lived shining lives.

Justin ran an information technology company. Nelson was a star lawyer. Rayden raced professionally. Their futures burned bright and unquestioned.

Once, mine almost had too.

I had been trained in dance since I was four. I woke at 5:00 a.m. every morning, collecting bruises, blisters, and blood. Earning an offer from an internationally renowned dance company was my lifelong dream.

That was the year Amber went insane over extreme sports. She was a complete beginner with no training, and she ignored every warning.

She jumped from two miles up. She slammed into a tree, and a branch pierced straight through her thigh.

Every bit of that damage transferred to me. My leg was destroyed, and my dance career ended before it began.

I lowered my head and climbed into Stefan's car. Only after the door shut did I realize Amber was sitting right beside me.

Justin took the driver's seat. Stefan circled around, clearly unwilling to sit next to me, and squeezed in on Amber's other side instead.

He chatted animatedly for the entire drive, smiling as if nothing in the world could touch him.

"Strangest thing," he said with a laugh. "A few days ago, my hand suddenly hurt so badly I couldn't even play piano. My manager panicked and said these hands are worth millions. We ran through a bunch of top hospitals."

He raised his hand and flexed his fingers. "Then it just healed on its own."

I watched his hand in silence.

'So this was 30%. Then what will 65% feel like?' The thought had barely formed when a massive truck veered straight toward us.

Justin slammed on the brakes.

The tires screamed, and I shifted sideways on instinct.

At the exact moment of impact, Stefan grabbed me and yanked me forward, forcing my body between him, Amber, and the oncoming force.