Chapter 2

This time, my parents brought Lily and me onto the cruise ship that had once claimed my life.

The familiar deck.

Every night, after all the guests fell asleep, I had to kneel on the floor and scrub it until it gleamed.

Before I could even rest for a moment, I had to go to the cargo hold on the right and haul cargo.

The blisters on my palms burst with blood, scabbed over, and split open again and again.

“Millie, you should work in the lower hold. You’re shy, and you won’t have to interact with strangers there.”

Mom pushed me toward the bottom deck.

The lower hold was filled with heavy industrial chemicals. I developed leukemia in my previous life because I spent so much time there.

This time, I refused to suffer through it again, even if dying was the only way to escape.

“I’m going to work at the front desk.” That had been Lily’s job in my previous two lives.

All she had to do was sit at the front desk and look after the guests’ luggage.

“No! Lily can’t work in the lower hold.”

Mom looked at her with heartache.

“Lily is already pitiful enough for having to take this job because of us. Besides, she isn’t in good health. How could you bear to send her to the lower hold? Millie, don’t be so selfish.”

I lifted my eyes to Lily.

Her skin was fair, and her cheeks were rosy. She looked nothing like someone in poor health.

Then I lowered my head and looked at myself.

I was the one who looked unhealthy.

I had stayed up late studying throughout all three years of high school, leaving my skin sallow and my wrists so thin they looked as if they could snap with one twist.

Yet Mom gave every expensive supplement to Lily.

I shook my head. “I’m not going.”

“You owe money, so you have to repay it. Who said you get to decide whether you agree?”

A large hand clamped around my arm and yanked me forward.

I stumbled as that person dragged me out.

I was about to struggle when I turned and saw the hand that had grabbed me.

I froze.

There was a faint scar at the base of the thumb.

When I was in middle school, someone struck me with a rock while I protected Lily, our newly adopted sister.

My older brother, Sebastian Brooks, used that hand to shield my head.

Blood from his pierced palm had flowed down my face, and I was terrified.

Back then, the pain turned Sebastian’s face pale, yet he smiled and comforted me. “What are you afraid of? I'm here. No one can bully you.”

But at some point, Sebastian changed too.

“She’s just an orphan. Can’t you give way to her?”

He began questioning why I was so petty and why I was always fighting Lily for everything.

But I never expected him to be part of this scam too.

Under my gaze, he unconsciously touched the mask on his face. “What are you looking at? Are you trying to slack off? Get to work in the lower hold!”

His shove made me stagger.

My vision suddenly went black, and I crashed heavily to the ground.

My forehead struck the edge of the deck, and warm blood trickled down along my brow.

“Millie!”

Mom and Dad cried out at the same time.

Sebastian instinctively took a step forward, his voice tense. “Are you all right?”

“Mom, Dad, I’m seasick.”

Lily suddenly swayed.

Mom and Dad immediately turned around to support her. “Where does it hurt? We’ll take you to the medical bay right now!”

Sebastian’s gaze lingered on Lily and me for a moment before he scooped her up and carried her away.

“I need someone to notify the doctor at once. We have a patient here.”

Lily wrapped her arms around Sebastian’s neck and turned to shoot me a smug smile.

I fell to the floor and watched the three of them hurry away. Then I looked at the ship sitting motionless by the shore.

Someone actually believed a lie that flimsy.

[Don’t worry, host. Your body is beginning to deteriorate because you’re about to leave this world. It’s a normal reaction.]

Only six hours remained.