99 Times They Hurt Me for Her, Then Begged for My Return

Chapter 3

Their faces froze the second they saw me, so I forced a trembling smile and let my voice barely hold together as I spoke.

I said, "Sorry to let you down. I am Nina."

The moment those words left my lips, a loud bang echoed through the room as Silas slammed the hospital door open so hard that the metal frame rattled and made my ears ring.

Joseph swallowed silently before he muttered, "I have a merger to sign. I cannot delay it."

Lucian unlocked his phone and set the volume to blare obnoxiously as he said, "Yeah, Henry Brown. Half an hour. Got it."

I twisted my fingers into the bedsheet and turned to Ruth with my last shred of hope, asking, "Could you stay with me?"

She checked her watch, and her eyes darted away from mine as she answered.

She said, "Nina, I am golfing with Eleanor Tylor today, and her family is a big deal for your father's business deals."

When I did not respond, she half-heartedly straightened my already perfect sheets and added, "Be good. I will bring your favorite strawberry cake tonight."

I knew that cake was Sussie's favorite, not mine, but I stared at her flawless makeup and almost blurted out the truth.

The truth was that I preferred blueberry, not strawberry, but I swallowed the words before they could escape.

All I could muster was a ghost of a reply, a single quiet word, "Okay."

A full day dragged on without a single visitor coming to see me.

The doctor's final checkup came with an icy detachment as he said, "Your insurance cuts off tonight, and if no payment arrives by seven, you are out."

I glanced at the empty nightstand and signed the discharge papers without saying a word.

My home loomed before me in the darkness, pitch-black like a mausoleum, and even the servants had vanished from the halls.

Meanwhile, the villa next door blazed with light, and laughter seeped through the walls as I stood outside.

I peered through the window, and my breath hitched in my chest because I could see my brother holding a champagne glass and flitting past the windowpane.

I wondered why he was not home and what was happening next door.

Something warm brushed against my ankle, so I looked down and met two amber eyes staring up at me.

Luna was the stray cat I had always fed, and she was the only creature that still sought me out in the whole world.

She rubbed against my leg and rumbled a contented purr that vibrated through the quiet night.

I gathered the cat into my arms and drifted toward the glowing villa almost against my own will.

Through the elaborate stained-glass door, an entire wall-sized portrait jumped out at me, and the girl in it had my face.

She was drowning in that god-awful pink dress I had always hated, and one look told me that the girl was not me at all.

Then the gilded words beneath the portrait stabbed at my eyes like knives.

The words read, "Happy Birthday, Sussie! Jan 25 Memorial."

But my birthday, Nina's birthday, was in August, not January.

The room dripped with Sussie's sickly sweet atmosphere, and the air felt heavy with her favorite gardenia stench, leaving no trace of me anywhere.

A loud bang made me flinch as Lucian's fist slammed against the wall, and his voice came out as a snarl.

He said, "Goddammit, when are we getting Sussie back?"

Joseph let his cigarette glow and dim between his fingers while his brow stayed tight with frustration.

He said, "The doctor said she is deteriorating fast, and we have got two days left. That is it."

Lucian's tone turned icy and measured as he replied, "Last time Sussie was here, Nina did not just take physical damage. It broke her spirit too. Maybe we should work on that."