The Day My Survival Score Reached Zero

Dante’s answer crushed the last bit of hope I had left.“Don’t flatter yourself,” he said coldly. “Sophia’s security feed picked up movement near the bell tower. She thought someone was trying to get close to her, so I went to check it. I didn’t follow you.”He looked at me with open disgust.“Stop using death to force people to care about you. Adrian chose Sophia. Accept it.”So he had not come for me.Even now, he had only left the wedding because of Sophia. I should have known. Dante Bellandi would never admit he loved her, but everyone in Chicago knew he would tear the city apart if she cried. She was marrying another man today, and he was still running around for her fear, her safety, and her peace of mind.As for me, I was only a stain on the family name.I turned toward the warehouse without another word.Inside, the power had been cut for years. At the back was an old ice room built with insulated stone walls, still trapping the river cold like a locked vault.Dante stayed by t

Maybe I looked too calm. Maybe I no longer sounded like someone threatening death to be saved. Whatever he saw in me made his jaw tense and his eyes go dark.Without another word, Julian called for his car, wrapped the coat tighter around my shoulders, and walked beside me all the way out of the conservatory.I did not struggle.I closed my eyes and began counting the minutes until they looked away again.Julian did not take me back to the main house. He brought me to his private clinic on the edge of the Bellandi estate, wrapped me in a blanket, checked my temperature, then called Dante in front of me as if I were another Bellandi problem that needed to be handled.Dante arrived less than twenty minutes later.Adrian came with him.So did Sophia.She had changed out of her veil, but she was still wearing the wedding dress. The moment she saw me on Julian’s couch, she stepped behind Adrian and gripped his sleeve as if I might lunge at her.Adrian looked at me with the same coldness he

Before I could reach the door, Mother rushed in.Her coat was buttoned wrong, and her hair looked much whiter than I remembered. She stopped in front of me, eyes red, voice shaking.“Bella, don’t leave me.”I froze.“Mom,” I whispered. “Why are you here?”“Dante said you were sick.” She held out her hand, careful not to touch me too suddenly. “He didn’t say you were trying to disappear.”That word made my chest ache.In this world, she was the only person who had loved me without needing proof.I went back to the bed because I could not bear to see her cry.Dante arrived soon after. When he saw Mother beside me, relief crossed his face before anger covered it.“So now Mother has to beg you too?” he said. “All because Adrian married Sophia?”Mother looked up sharply. “Dante.”He fell silent.Adrian and Julian stood behind him, both watching me like they finally knew I might break, yet still could not understand why.Mother stayed with me through the night. She held my hand, spoke softly

Luca had been my hidden target once, the one I never managed to approach. Back then, every time I tried to get close, he disappeared. Sometimes I saw him with Sophia, sometimes I found him watching me from across a room, but he never stayed long enough for me to ask why.So I gave up on him and chose Adrian instead.Now he drove through the sleeping city with one hand on the wheel, his stolen orderly’s badge lying on the dashboard. The streetlights slid across his face, and for a moment he looked exactly like the boy I used to know: quiet, distant, carrying a tenderness he refused to let anyone see.“I’m sorry,” he said. “I came too late.”“It’s fine,” I said.It was more than fine.Because he had brought me out.Because now I could finally leave.I asked him to take me somewhere open, somewhere that did not smell like disinfectant or locked doors, so Luca drove me to the lakefront before dawn. The city was still dark, the water black and calm, and the wind moved through my hair like i

Luca looked at Dante without pity.“Now you remember you’re her brother?” he said. “You were the one who signed the papers that locked her away.”Dante flinched.Luca turned to Julian. “And you were her doctor. You knew better than anyone that she was ill, but you let Sophia make you call it manipulation.”Julian said nothing.Finally, Luca looked at Adrian.“She stayed beside you when the Moretti ambush nearly killed you. She spent the only reward the Program ever gave her to save your life, and you thanked her by putting her ring on Sophia’s hand.”Every word landed like a blade.I saw guilt on their faces at last.Pain too.I did not know how Luca had learned so much, but I was grateful. He had given me freedom before I died, and now he had given me the truth after it.None of them left that night.Dante sat beside my body with an old music box from my childhood, winding it again and again as if I might wake for the sound. Julian stayed by the window with my medical file in his hand