Chapter 4
"Henry... I..."
Sophia was frantic, her hands clutching at his sleeve, words tumbling out in a nonsensical stream.
"No... it wasn't like that... she... she fell! It was an accident!"
Her denials were so pathetic that she couldn't even convince herself.
Henry just stared at her silently, as if he were looking at a complete stranger.
I savored the sight of the chasm opening between them. The time was right. I delivered the final, devastating blow.
"You poor, pathetic man," I said, shaking my head with an air of profound pity. "You really thought you were making a noble sacrifice, giving up your tragic girlfriend to save the love of your life?
"You were wrong."
My voice was quiet, but the words exploded in the silent room.
"Did you honestly believe," I sneered, "that a cheap knockoff like Sophia Winters was worthy of my heart?"
Henry turned to me abruptly, his gaze piercing.
"What are you talking about?"
I didn't answer him. Instead, I turned to Quentin, who looked just as stunned as Henry.
"Quentin, do you remember what the doctor told you back when I gave you that blood transfusion?"
He frowned for a moment, and his eyes lit up with recognition.
"I remember! The doctor said your blood was special. Something about P-type blood within the RH-negative group. He said it was thousands of times rarer. And he said your heart was a natural fortress, a medical miracle!"
I gave him an approving nod and turned my gaze back to Henry.
"Did you hear that? My heart is one of a kind. There is nothing else like it in the world. And Sophia? She's just a common O-type."
I paused, enjoying the sight of the blood draining from Henry's face. Then, I delivered the final blow.
"The person who really needed my heart to live wasn't her.
"It was your sister, Lydia Lancaster, the one who's been in a coma in a Swiss clinic for the last five years, kept alive by machines that cost more than most people make in a lifetime.
"Sophia was just a pawn. A decoy the Lancaster family used from the very beginning. A test subject for Lydia's experimental treatments, a scapegoat to take the fall, a perfect distraction to keep the world from looking too closely."
The suite was dead silent.
Henry swayed, as if all the strength had been sucked from his body. He looked at me with utter disbelief, and he whipped his head around to stare at Sophia's ashen face.
She finally broke, collapsing to the floor in a heap, her lips trembling, unable to form a single word.
The truth always hurts more than the lie.
His face was a mask of utter shock and torment. But seeing it brought me none of the pleasure of vengeance I had expected. Instead, all I felt was a hollow, icy void.
I thought this new life was about revenge against him and Sophia. But in that moment, I finally understood.
My real enemy was never these two blind, stupid puppets.
The Lancaster family was the one pulling the strings, who saw human lives as disposable commodities. They had orchestrated everything from the shadows.
My hatred had been misplaced.
And my second chance at life was not meant to be wasted on these two clowns.
What I wanted was to make the entire Lancaster family pay for my death.
That was the true meaning of my rebirth.
"Impossible..." Henry muttered, lost in a daze. He couldn't accept a truth that so completely shattered his reality.
"My sister's doctor said all she needed was a compatible heart..."