Chapter 3

Summer POV

The next morning, I dragged my extremely weak body to the hospital.

In the intensive care unit, Mason lay quietly on the bed, his body covered with tubes.

I sat by the bed and gently held his pale, cold hand. My voice was as soft as a breeze. "Mason, I might not be able to wait for you to wake up. Don't be afraid. After I'm gone, the money will be enough to maintain your treatment. If there's a next life, you can protect me instead, okay?"

The hospital room door opened. Dr. Hayes walked in wearing a white coat.

Hayes was Mason's attending physician. Over these three years, if he hadn't been secretly looking after Mason, my brother wouldn't have made it this far.

"Summer, why do you look so bad?" Hayes looked at my gaunt face, his brow furrowed tightly. "What happened to your hand? And have you been having frequent headaches lately?"

As a perceptive doctor, he seemed to have noticed something wrong with my body long ago.

"I'm fine, Hayes. I just didn't sleep well last night." I instinctively hid my hand in my coat pocket and avoided his gaze.

I couldn't let anyone know about my condition. If Nathan found out, he'd only think it was a new trick to escape atonement.

Hayes looked at my forbearing appearance. He seemed deeply pained. He suddenly stepped forward and gripped my shoulders. "Summer, stop staying with Nathan! He's sucking you dry, demanding your life! Come with me. I'll take you abroad. I can find a way to treat Mason too!"

"What big words from Dr. Hayes. Where exactly do you want to take my wife?"

A cold, vicious voice suddenly rang out from the doorway.

Nathan, dressed in a black suit, strode into the room. His gaze fixed deadly on Hayes's hands on my shoulders, his eyes filled with extreme fury.

My heart lurched. I quickly pulled away from Hayes's grip. "You've misunderstood. We were just discussing Mason's condition."

"Misunderstood?" Nathan laughed coldly and grabbed my wrist, roughly pulling me to his side. "No wonder you couldn't wait to run out first thing in the morning. Turns out you were rushing to meet your old flame. Summer, a woman as unfaithful as you truly disgusts me."

"Nathan, don't go too far!" Hayes's eyes reddened with anger. He rushed forward to pull me back.

But Nathan swung his fist and punched Hayes in the face, shouting a warning. "Touch her one more time and I'll pull Mason's tubes today!"

Those words hit my weak spot completely, cutting off any resistance.

I desperately held Hayes back. "Hayes, please stop! I'll go with him."

Nathan dragged me like lifeless cargo, stuffed me into the car, and sped all the way back to the villa.

As soon as we entered, he threw me hard onto the carpet.

"So desperate for a man? Can't help seducing people even at the hospital?" Nathan loosened his tie and looked down at me from above, his eyes full of disgust. "Since you're so idle, do something useful for me."

He waved his hand. Bodyguards carried in several heavy cardboard boxes filled with red wedding invitations.

"Next month is my wedding with Evelyn. These remaining ten thousand invitations. You'll write them all by hand. If you don't finish, Mason won't get another cent for medical expenses."

I lay on the floor, staring at that glaring red color, feeling as if my heart had been carved out alive.

This was the wedding he'd once promised me. Now he wanted me to personally write his name alongside someone else's.

"Fine. I'll write them." Not a single tear fell. I was calm to the point of numbness.

Seeing me not even resist, Nathan seemed even angrier. He snorted coldly and turned to leave.

Under the dim light of the basement, I gripped my pen and wrote "Nathan" and "Evelyn" word by word.

Ten thousand invitations. A mountain of them.

By late night, the tumor's compression of my optic nerve worsened again.

The text before my eyes began to double, then became a blurry black mass.

Extreme pain exploded from the back of my skull. My whole body convulsed from the pain.

The pen tip scratched a jarring bloody line across the paper.

I nearly bit through my lip just to keep from passing out.

My vision went completely dark. I could only rely on muscle memory to write with my eyes closed in the darkness. Every stroke was the most painful farewell to this humble love.