Chapter 4

After the nurse left, Mom turned around, her gaze tinged with impatience.

She threw the remaining water right in my face. "Did you do this on purpose? Our bodies are tough. Even if you lose a liver or a kidney, you'll bounce back after some rest.

"I know you're trying to win our affection this way, but it's downright vicious. Iris is at a crucial time and needs extra attention. Can't you be considerate? If anything happens to Iris, you might as well die."

Mom spat out those words angrily, then turned and walked out.

I struggled to sit up and called out after her, "Am I really your daughter or not?"

She said,"Without Iris, you have no reason to exist. You were able to grow up in good health because of her. You should be grateful to her."

She said it coldly, not even sparing me a glance as she walked out of the ward.

All the strength drained out of me in an instant, and tears kept streaming down my face, no matter how hard I tried to wipe them away.

I used to think that if I did as I was told and donated my healthy liver and kidney to Iris, Mom and Dad would finally treat me like their real daughter and show me genuine love and affection.

But I was wrong.

The truth was, Iris, the reincarnation of the Moon Goddess, was the only one who mattered. I was nothing more than a tool for her.

Iris and I were twins, both their daughters, but I always felt like an adopted stranger, someone with no real connection to them.

No matter how hard I tried, the tears wouldn't stop, and the pain in my abdomen was only getting worse.

Clenching my teeth, I forced myself to bear the pain, telling myself it was my fate to make this sacrifice.

I should have been discharged already, but with Mom and Dad busy taking care of Iris, they didn't spare any time or thoughts to deal with my discharge.

Ever since the Pack was attacked, more and more people had been injured, and hospital beds were in short supply.

Since I was the one who donated my organs and my health was still decent, the doctors and nurses could only apologize as they moved me out to the hallway, giving my bed to someone who needed it more.

I nodded silently, my face expressionless.

All I could do was wait until Iris was ready to leave, and maybe then they would remember to handle my discharge as well, so I could finally go home.

I spent every day in a fog, barely waking up, until about a week later when a sudden, burning pain tore through my abdomen. It felt like I was being scorched from the inside out.

In my daze, I heard a nurse rushing by, shouting, "Hurry! The wound's infected. We need to save her right now. She's Aylin, the Alpha's eldest daughter. Go tell Alpha and Luna. They're—"

She didn't even get to finish before someone interrupted her. "Alpha and Luna checked out this morning and left. We've called them a bunch of times, but nobody's answering..."

I couldn't hear anything after that. The pain was so intense that everything went black.

As my consciousness lingered, I felt that this was fine too.

Now that Iris, the Moon Goddess's reincarnation, was healthy, there was no longer any reason for me to exist.

There was no doubt they would go on living happily as a family. Perhaps they would remember me occasionally, since my liver and kidney were now inside Iris.

It wasn't until my soul floated up above everything that I finally understood I was truly gone.

On the operating table, the doctors fought to bring me back, refusing to give up.

See? Even strangers cared more about me than my own parents.

Even when the monitor showed a flat line, the doctors kept shocking me and doing CPR, taking turns for over half an hour, drenched in sweat and utterly spent, until they finally had to accept there was nothing more they could do.

I watched as the doctors and nurses surrounded me, bowing their heads in silent tribute.

I tried to float down, wanting to catch a glimpse of my final appearance, but a strong force suddenly pulled me away, and my mind faded into darkness.