All Chapters of Left to Die: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

8 Chapters

Chapter 1

"Vanessa, if you're so worried about Miles, why did you even marry me?" I was nearly screaming. "Every single time, you drop everything and run to him. Have you ever once thought about how that makes me feel? I'm your husband!"The outburst set my heart pounding painfully, tight and constricted, until I could barely breathe. I knew what that meant—my heart condition was flaring up again. The pain hit so hard that all the color drained from my face, and I sank helplessly to the floor, one hand pressed to my chest.Vanessa Allen and I had been together for seven years. She should have recognized the signs immediately—she was a well-regarded cardiologist, after all, someone with real expertise in heart conditions. But her mind was entirely consumed by her brother, and she mistook my collapse for some petty jealous act. She only gave my shoulder a careless pat, her voice edged with impatience. "Honey, please don't fake a heart attack just to scare me. Miles isn't feeling well. I can'

Chapter 2

The next time I woke up in the hospital, I turned on my phone to a wall of messages too vile to look at twice.All of them were from Miles.Miles: [Tim, so what if I'm not really a Carell? Mom, Dad, Robin, even Vanessa—they all still love me best. You're the unwanted one around here, you bastard.]Miles: [Tim, your life is pathetic. Notice how every single time they have to choose, they choose to throw you away? If I were you, I'd have killed myself by now.]Miles: [Why'd you even bother coming back, Tim? All you're doing is humiliating yourself. You'd have made a perfectly good dog back at Briarwood Manor. You should spend the rest of your life under my heel, right where you belong.Every message dripped with the same arrogance and cruelty.I read through them with no expression at all, barely a flicker of feeling. I'd been getting messages like these for years. To Mom, Dad, Robin, and Vanessa, Miles looked innocent and kind. In reality, he was a monster through and through.My

Chapter 3

Miles crossed the room to me at a quick pace, tears shining in his eyes—and underneath them, nothing but provocation."I know you're upset that Vanessa and Mom and Dad came to sit with me instead of you, but I was in so much pain earlier—I swear I didn't mean to steal them away from you. Tim, please don't be angry with me. It's all my fault. Don't blame them, okay?"The words were pure poison dressed up as sweetness, and they set the whole family's anger on me while stirring up nothing but sympathy for Miles.Dad's face darkened. "Miles, don't waste your breath explaining yourself to something this heartless. He's been spoiled rotten. If he won't treat us like his parents and his family, then as far as we're concerned, we don't have a son like him."Mom pressed her lips into a thin line, looking at me with nothing but disappointment. "Tim, I'm not asking you to be as kind and gentle as Miles. But you're a Carell. How can you be this petty, this selfish? Your foster parents clearly

Chapter 4

Vanessa looked at me, hurt written all over her face. "Tim, please don't do this out of spite. I know you're jealous of Miles, but I only look after him because he's your brother. You're the one I love."She reached for our past, trying to talk me out of the divorce. "Tim, have you forgotten? We promised each other we'd stay together forever—that we'd still be holding hands when we were old and gray. If you leave me now, how are we supposed to grow old together?"Her tears were scalding hot, but I didn't have a shred of softness left for her.Brother. What a word to hide behind.One phone call from Miles, and it didn't matter where I was or what time it was—she'd drop me, her own husband, and run straight to his side. Even on our wedding anniversary, she'd left me sitting alone in a restaurant we'd booked months in advance. I'd begged her not to go, and all I got back was an exasperated, irritated, "Honey, can you stop making this into a thing? You don't need to be so possessive."

Chapter 5

Once the chaos settled, everything went quiet again, and I found myself drifting back through everything that had happened before.When I'd first come back to the Carell family, Mom and Dad had done everything they could to make it up to me, guilt driving every kindness. It wasn't warm, exactly, not yet—but it was genuine. Robin felt even worse about what I'd gone through. Whatever I wanted, he tried his best to give me.If things had just been allowed to run their natural course, I would have slowly found my place in that family, growing closer to them bit by bit.So why did everything fall apart?Because underneath the guilty, friendly face Miles showed me, he'd already bared his teeth and gone to work with every filthy trick he had. He accused me of stealing things he liked. He told the household staff to treat him badly, then blamed me for it. He spread rumors about me behind my back until people outside the family were mocking him as some outsider who'd wormed his way into a h

Chapter 6

"Tim, you're not well. Come have some soup. I made it myself—it took me two whole hours."The voice pulled me out of my memories.Vanessa stood there holding a thermos, smiling at me in that hopeful, pleading way.It was almost funny. In all our years married, she'd barely ever made me soup—said it took too much time and effort. She'd spent all that energy on Miles instead. Now that I'd brought up divorce, suddenly she couldn't do enough for me.When I didn't answer right away, she went ahead and opened the thermos herself, ladling out a bowl of chicken soup. A layer of bright green chives floated on top, practically glowing.Miles was the one who loved chives. I'd always hated them.The smell of the soup, thick with chives, hit my nose, and my stomach turned violently."I'm not drinking that."Vanessa brushed the refusal off like it meant nothing, holding the bowl out to me, her voice as gentle as it had always been. "Tim, don't be difficult, okay? You're weak right now. You n

Chapter 7

Something flickered in Miles's eyes, and then they welled up with tears.His voice came out thin and wounded. "Tim, a really good friend of mine has a serious heart condition. If he doesn't get a transplant, he could die today. I couldn't just stand by and let that happen—it's a real person's life we're talking about."His voice cracked. "I'll work hard to find you a match too, Tim, I promise. It's just that my friend really couldn't wait any longer."I had to hand it to him—the kid who cried loudest always got the candy.Mom and Vanessa had both disapproved at first, but the second Miles turned on the tears, their disapproval melted into something closer to admiration for how kind-hearted he was.Mom frowned, brushing the whole thing off like it was nothing. "Tim, why are you blaming Miles for this? A person's life was on the line, and it was his friend—of course, he wasn't going to just let someone die. Besides, you don't look like you're in any real danger. What's the harm in

Chapter 8

When I woke again, the first thing I saw was blinding white.I flexed my stiff fingers, and when I opened my eyes, Vanessa was staring back at me, relief flooding her face."Tim, you're finally awake!"She reached toward me like she meant to pull me into a hug, but caught the resistance in my eyes and pulled her hands back hesitantly."I'm sorry, Tim," she said, her voice thick with remorse. "This is all our fault. We had no idea Miles was capable of something this vicious."Mom, Dad, and Robin stood behind her, eyes swimming with tears, choking out apology after apology.I'd been unconscious for five full days, they told me—pulled back from the edge again and again by the doctors. A lot had happened while I was out.My lawyer friend had always hated injustice, and he'd taken what happened to me personally. He'd pulled every resource, every connection he had, and dug up a mountain of evidence against Miles and laid it all out in front of my family. Witnesses, documents, videos,

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