Chapter 2

The air fell silent for a moment.

Giovanni leaned back in his chair, a sneer curling at the corner of his mouth. "Gerard, after all these years, do you think I'd still fall for your act?"

The tightness in my chest intensified sharply. I forced myself to stand upright. "Sorry, I need to use the restroom."

Without waiting for anyone to respond, I stumbled and turned away.

Behind me, I heard Michelle's anxious voice trying to stop him. "Giovanni, don't chase after her. She probably doesn't want to see you right now. Let me go talk to her. After all, we used to be friends."

Friends? The nausea in my stomach grew worse.

I clutched my chest and staggered into the emergency stairwell.

Michelle followed me. "Gerard."

I stopped but didn't turn around. "Michelle, there's no one else here. You don't need to act."

She stepped in front of me, looking at my disheveled state with mockery. "Act? I'm just here to remind you to know your place. Giovanni is my fiancé now. You're just a server. You'd better stay away from him."

I looked at her, unable to reconcile this ugly face with the innocent girl I once knew.

Michelle and I were both orphans, raised together in the same orphanage.

I was adopted by kind people and made it through high school.

At school, I ran into Michelle again. She was about to drop out because she couldn't afford tuition.

Giovanni was my sponsor at the time, so I asked him to sponsor Michelle too.

To thank Giovanni and me, she became our "relationship guardian."

Later, Giovanni's heart condition left him on the brink of death in a hospital bed.

I didn't want him to die, so I secretly went to get tested for heart compatibility without telling Michelle.

The results showed I was a match. I could donate my heart, but afterward, I could only survive with an artificial heart.

When Michelle heard I'd decided to donate my heart, she froze.

"Gerard... I was just talking. Are you really going to donate your heart?"

When she couldn't persuade me otherwise, she gripped my hand tightly and cried until she couldn't breathe.

"I swear, while he's unconscious and recovering, I'll watch over him for you! You don't want him to feel guilty, so I won't tell him the truth."

I looked at Michelle's triumphant face now and suddenly felt utterly absurd.

My voice trembled. "Michelle, why are you the one marrying him?"

I treated her like a friend, like family.

Why did she betray me?

"Why?" Michelle's face twisted with jealousy and satisfaction. "Gerard, what gives you the right to always be so naive and lucky?

Yes, we're both orphans. But why do you get everything so easily that I can never obtain no matter how hard I try?

The favor of Giovanni's family. Giovanni's unconditional love. Even after you abandoned him, even when he hates you to death, he still loves you deep down."

She stepped closer. "You told me to take care of him, and I did. When he woke up at his most vulnerable, when he hated you the most, I told him you left.

Watching him suffer, watching him depend on me, watching him finally look at me... that feeling was so wonderful. Finally, it was my turn to be lucky."

"And you? You won't live past ten years with that artificial heart." Michelle's expression grew more excited. "Besides that broken body, what do you have left to compete with me?"

A bone-deep chill wrapped around me. I looked at her, suddenly losing all desire to argue.

I tugged at the corner of my mouth and walked past her. "You're right."

"So please, both of you stay away from me."

I find you disgusting.

Giovanni kept his word. The next day, Manager Anderson found every excuse to fire me.

Over the following week, every résumé I sent out sank without a trace.

I knew whose doing this was. He wanted to force me to bow my head, to beg him.

Fine. Hatred is easier than love.

Hatred would keep him alive—alive with a healthy body and a bright future.

Still, my heart sometimes ached in dense, stabbing waves. So this was it. He really could leave not a shred of old feelings behind. Ruthless to the end.

I clutched the medical report I'd just received. The doctor only said, "For your remaining time, enjoy your life."

I might not see the next spring.

A wave of dizziness hit me, and my body swayed.

At that moment, the last voice I wanted to hear sounded from behind me. "Gerard?"

I froze instantly. Before I could hide the report, Giovanni was already striding toward me. "Why are you at the hospital? Are you not feeling well?"

His brows furrowed tightly as he reached out to take the report.

Instinctively, I hid it behind my back and stepped away, helpless and cornered.

Seeing this, Michelle, afraid Giovanni would learn the truth, grabbed his arm. "Giovanni, don't do this..."

Giovanni's tone grew heavier, carrying an undeniable command, as if he were still the boy from years ago who could take whatever he wanted from me.

Just as he was about to seize the report, an arm suddenly blocked his path.

"Mr. Giovanni, it's not very appropriate to get physical with a lady, is it?"