Chapter 3

I stayed in the hospital for three days, and no one but the nurse's aide came to see how I was doing.

On the fourth morning, a nurse came by for the hospital bills, and that was only when I found out that I owed the hospital money. I asked, "Didn't any of them pay the bill?"

The nurse looked like she had been placed in a difficult position. "They applied for a temporary discharge from the hospital and said they would pay the bill at a later time."

I waited until night came, but my phone did not ring once.

That night, Stacy posted a picture of her standing under the sunset with a straw hat on her social media account. The location indicated that she was at a hotel by the beach. Henry was holding her bag, while Mom was putting a coat on her.

Dad stood at the side, carefully shielding her from any incoming danger, and Toby had a camera in his hand to capture every memory he could of Stacy. The caption read: [This is the first time I'm seeing the sea.]

My fingers froze mid-scroll when I saw the picture.

By the time the nurse came by a second time to ask about the hospital bills, I had paid them in full. It took out a chunk of my savings, but I still had enough to get myself home.

There was no one at home, but despite the empty house, it was filled with traces of them returning and leaving.

I returned to my room and closed the door behind me. When I got to my desk, I coughed up blood, and some of it splattered onto the floor. I leaned against my desk and coughed for a long time, and I almost passed out.

When my coughing finally stopped, I went to the washroom. As the water flowed through my fingers, I noticed a clump of my hair entangled there. I was taken aback, and I raised my hand to gently touch my head, which caused another clump of hair to fall off.

The woman in the mirror looked so thin that she had lost her looks. Her face was deathly pale, and there was no color in her lips. It reminded me of what Henry had said to me, "Stop it, Tessa. It's exhausting."

I asked him then, "Is it because I look horrible?"

He denied it and replied, "It's just that when Stacy is in the room, she brightens it up."

I crouched to wipe off the blood from the ground and threw my clumps of hair into the bin. I did everything slowly, as if I was taking care of someone else's mess. After that, I turned on the laptop and started typing out an agreement to cancel our engagement.

After that, I took out another piece of paper. The tip of my pen lingered on the paper for a long time as I was about to write my last will and testament. There was plenty I wanted to jot down, but in the end, I settled on a few sentences.

If I died, none of them needed to pretend to be sad. I wanted them to burn every part of me and make sure that no trace was left behind. I did not want to be associated with this family.

When I got to the end, I was so tired that I fell asleep at my desk.

I had no idea how long I slept before I heard some noise coming from the living room. They were back from their holiday, and Stacy's laughter was the first thing that echoed through the house.

Mom was telling her to be careful and slow down, while Henry was busy asking her in a low voice if she was feeling tired.

I did not leave my room, but my room door was quickly opened. Stacy stuck her head inside and saw the papers on my desk. She came over quickly and pulled my last will and testament from the desk. I awoke with a start and tried to snatch it back. "Give it back."

Stacy took a step back and glanced at it before she started to tear up. "What do you mean by this, Tessa? Did you write your last will and testament because you want our family to think that I'm pushing you to the brink of death?"

Everyone quickly rushed into the room, and Dad's face fell when he saw the paper in Stacy's hand. Mom's voice was tense as she asked, "What are you thinking, Tessa?"

My chest hurt as I was fuming. "That's mine. Give it back to me."

However, Henry took it from Stacy before I did, and he looked increasingly upset as he read the contents.

Mom started crying on the spot. "Are you so determined to make your sister suffer? How could you write something like that when she's pregnant?"

I looked at her and suddenly laughed. "All of you left me at the hospital and accompanied her to the beach, but a few papers I wrote are suddenly the source of all her suffering?"

Dad said coldly, "You knew that Stacy can't be agitated, but you still went ahead and showed them all in public. Are you trying to make her feel guilty?"

Stacy placed a hand on her stomach and fell into Henry's arms. "I knew that Tessa couldn't stand the presence of our baby and me. She wants both of us dead."

I knew that no one would believe whatever I said, so I nodded. "You're all right. I'm just a crazy woman. Are all of you happy now?"

Henry suddenly said, "Tessa." He clutched those papers as he teared up. "You pulled me out of that burning laboratory back then. I owe you my life."

I was taken aback.

There had been a fire when we were in university, and I dashed into the laboratory to save him. I ended up hospitalized for two weeks because I inhaled too much smoke. Henry held my hand back then and said, "Tessa, I promise I will be good to you for the rest of my life."

Henry slammed the papers on the desk. "You've always thought that I owe you for that, right? Well, I'll pay it back to you right now."

With that, Henry dashed out of the room. Everyone was stunned, and Mom was the first person to scream, "Henry!"

I tried to stand up by holding myself against the desk and stumbled out the door after him. When I got to the end of the corridor, I saw Henry standing on the ledge of the third floor. He turned to glance at me before jumping over the rails.

There was a muffled thud downstairs followed by screams and flurried footsteps. By the time we got downstairs, Henry was already lying on the ground with an unnatural bend in his leg. He did not die, but he fractured his leg.

Stacy could barely stand from crying, while Mom looked back at me coldly. She suddenly dashed forward to slap me. "Are you happy now? Are you so determined to drive this family crazy?"

Everyone had seen Henry make the decision to jump, but in the end, I was the one who was blamed.