Chapter 1
To save my life, my sister, Jenny Wynn, had to live with an oxygen tube for the rest of her life. Yet I pulled out her oxygen tube during a live fundraising stream.
Everyone—even my fiancé, Ethan Grant—said I betrayed her kindness.
But my father, who had always doted on Jenny, stepped in front of me instead. "Let her do it."
When I reached out to pull the tube again, Ethan raised his hand and stopped me.
That was when my mother, eyes red and swollen, climbed onto the window ledge on the twenty-eighth floor. "Let her pull it," she said. "Or I'll jump from here."
*****
After Jenny's attending physician heard what she had done to save me, he was deeply moved. He set up his phone by Jenny's hospital bed and started a live stream on his own.
By the time I tapped into the broadcast, the viewer count had already passed one hundred thousand.
On screen was Jenny, with a clear oxygen tube taped beneath her nose.
Professor Michael Lewis, a highly respected senior doctor, stood beside her. His eyes were rimmed with red, his voice catching as he spoke. "One year ago, during that horrific laboratory explosion, it was Jenny who braced herself against the blast door as it was closing. She held it open with all her strength and shoved her sister, Helen, out of the toxic gas."
He paused, taking a moment to steady himself.
Comments kept popping up on the screen, catching my eye.
[This is breaking me. What kind of angel is Jenny—risking her life to save her sister.]
[She's only 20, and she'll be stuck with an oxygen tube for the rest of her life. That's so tragic.]
[Where's her big sis? She has to take good care of Jenny from now on.]
Michael turned slightly, tears shimmering in his eyes, and aimed the camera toward the doorway. "Jenny's family is here as well. I'd like her sister Helen to say a few words. And I hope everyone watching can spare some kindness for our angel, our brave heroine."
The camera shook as it swung toward me.
I was dressed in a black trench coat. Behind me stood my parents and my fiancé, Ethan. I stared at Jenny on the hospital bed, my face unreadable.
Noticing Michael's cue, Ethan urged me forward.
I walked toward the bed. The comment section exploded.
[The sister's here. She looks exhausted; her eyes are bloodshot. She must be heartbroken.]
[As long as the family sticks together, Jenny will pull through.]
[Don't worry about the money. With so many people across the country, her story will raise enough for the medical bills.]
On camera, Jenny's lashes fluttered as she slowly opened her eyes. When she saw me, a spark lit up in her dull gaze, and tears slid down from the corners of her eyes. She weakly reached out to me, forcing a few words past her dry throat. "Helen... I'm just glad you're okay..."
The scene brought the entire livestream to tears, including the doctors and my fiancé.
I stood by Jenny's bed. Just as I was about to take her hand, she suddenly flinched and pulled it back in panic.
I scoffed, ignored the camera, and fixed my eyes on her oxygen tube. Then I reached out. Without a second thought, I pulled it out.
The heart monitor let out a piercing alarm.
"Helen, have you lost your mind?" Ethan was the first to react. He rushed forward and shoved me aside.
The livestream camera shook violently. The comments were instantly drowned in blood-red curses. [Murderer.] [Monster.]
Michael and the nurses screamed and lunged for the bed, scrambling to reconnect Jenny's oxygen.
Under the camera's glare, Jenny's chest heaved violently. Her face turned blue before everyone's eyes. The oxygen saturation on the monitor plummeted.
In the chaos of doctors and nurses fighting to save her, a faint flush finally returned to Jenny's face.
After a frantic round of emergency treatment, her vital signs were barely stabilized.
She looked at me, tears slipping down her cheeks. "Helen... are you still upset? Is it... is it because you think I'm still with your fiancé? Helen, please don't get me wrong... I really... I really haven't been close to him anymore..."
She looked at me, her eyes full of pleading. "I gave him up to you back then... I even gave you my kidney... A year ago, I almost gave you my life... Helen, what more do you want from me..."
She gave up her lover, she donated a kidney, and she even saved my life—every single one of those things was something Jenny had given up. Every single one of them was a debt I owed. I admitted it. All of it was true.
At this moment, the livestream completely blew up.
[Holy hell, that's a lot to take in. So, Jenny actually let her sister have her fiancé?]
[She even donated a kidney to Helen. Is she even real? She is an absolute angel.]
[Is Helen a monster or what? Jenny's done nothing but good for her, and she still went and tried to kill her.]
All that rage finally found somewhere to land.
"Helen, is your heart made of stone?" Michael pointed at me, shaking with fury. "Don't you get how much Jenny's done for you? I've been her attending physician for years. Every single time she ended up in the hospital, wasn't it because of you? She was willing to risk her life to save yours, and this is how you repay her?"
The nurses crowded around the bed, looking at me with nothing but contempt.
The livestream chat was flooded with comments that were basically canceling me on the spot.
Ethan's eyes were so red they looked ready to bleed. "Helen, I never imagined you were this vicious."
He raised his hand, the slap cutting through the air as it came toward my face. "This slap is for Jenny."
I stood there, expressionless, waiting for it to land. But an old, steady hand caught Ethan's wrist midair.
It was my father. His face was dark, unreadable. His gaze was locked on the hand Jenny had just pulled back. Then his voice, thick with anger, echoed through the ward. "Let her pull it."