Chapter 4

After that incident, I lay unconscious in my rental apartment for three days.

If the landlord hadn't come to collect rent, I probably would have died on that moldy bed.

When I woke up, I received a call from the hospital.

Orion was failing.

He needed surgery immediately. The surgery cost five hundred thousand dollars.

Five hundred thousand.

I couldn't even come up with five hundred dollars right now.

With no choice left, I dialed the number I'd sworn never to call again.

"Speak."

It was Thorne's voice, cold and clipped.

"Thorne...I need five hundred thousand. Orion is dying...Please."

I begged, the words shaking.

"Money?" A low, mocking laugh came through the line. "You can earn it. Tonight's our engagement party. Be there to serve the drinks."

"As long as you serve every guest well, I'll reward you with a million dollars."

"I might even consider getting the best doctors for that waste of space, Orion."

Even knowing this was humiliation, I had no choice.

"Okay... I'll be there."

The Thorne family estate.

Today was Thorne and Vespera's engagement party. All the city's elite had come.

I wore an ill-fitting maid's uniform, carrying a tray and weaving through the crowd.

Everyone who looked at me had mockery in their eyes.

The once high-and-mighty daughter of Frostwind Pack had now become a servant at her ex-fiancé's engagement party.

This was undoubtedly the biggest joke of the evening.

But I didn't care.

I just wanted to get the money and save Orion's life.

As long as I could endure tonight, I would take Orion and leave this place, find somewhere no one knew us, and quietly wait to die.

The party reached its climax.

Thorne took Vespera's hand and walked onto the platform covered in rose petals.

Under the spotlight, they looked like the perfect match.

Just then, Vespera suddenly waved at me.

"Elara, could you please come help me hold this bouquet? I need to exchange rings with Thorne."

All eyes turned to me.

Thorne also looked over, his gaze warning me not to cause trouble.

I set down my tray, lowered my head, and walked up.

As I reached out to take the bouquet, Vespera suddenly leaned close to my ear.

In a voice only the two of us could hear, she whispered softly:

"Elara, actually, I know it was you who saved Thorne from under the rubble that year."

"And Orion's car accident-I had someone arrange that too."

"But so what? I'm the one standing beside him now, and I'll be the one with the Luna title in the future."

"And you? You can only watch like a dog, seething with jealousy."

"Oh, right, I forgot to tell you-I just had someone stop Orion's medication."

"Since you're going to die anyway, might as well let him go down to keep you company."

In that instant, all the blood in my body froze.

The sounds around me became muffled. Everything before my eyes turned blood red.

Orion... was dead?

The only family I had left in this world, the person I'd fought desperately to protect...

She'd killed him?

I screamed with everything I had.

Like a madwoman, I lunged at Vespera, forcing a Shift. My scarred wolf claws snatched the bouquet of roses and smashed it into her face.

The thorns on the roses tore through her delicate makeup.

"Vespera! I'll kill you!"

The scene erupted into chaos.

Thorne reacted quickly, kicking me to the ground with one blow.

Then he immediately shielded Vespera.

"Elara! You're asking for death!"

He roared furiously. That kick landed squarely on my fragile chest.

I shifted back to human form, a mouthful of blood spurting out.

Forcing a Shift had triggered the Wolfsbane in my body. This time, the blood wouldn't stop no matter what.

I collapsed in a pool of blood, my vision beginning to blur.

I watched Thorne frantically check Vespera for injuries.

I watched him look at me with eyes that wished me dead.

With difficulty, I pulled out the special painkiller medication from my pocket.

My hand loosened, and the pill bottle rolled to Thorne's feet.

White pills scattered across the floor.

I used the last shred of my strength to look at Thorne, pulling my lips into a smile of relief.

"Thorne... congratulations... you're finally... going to get me killed..."

"If there's a next life... I'd rather... have never saved you..."

In the final second before darkness took me, I saw Thorne pick up the pill bottle.

His pupils contracted. His whole body went rigid.

He saw the label on the bottle.

Treatment for Late-Stage Wolfsbane.

At that exact moment, the banquet hall doors crashed open.

My physician Cyrus stormed in, waving an autopsy report and a voice recorder, fury etched on his face.

"Everyone stop!"

"Thorne! You bastard! Look at what you've done!"

"That fool who ruined her hands digging you out...she's dying."