Chapter 8 · Why Not Choose Me?

Chapter 8

This time, he messed up twice in a row, connecting the wrong tube each time. His hands were shaking so badly that he couldn't get the machine to start."Look at me, Emily. I'm your brother," William said. "Emily, don't fall asleep."I'll take you home."I looked into his bloodshot eyes.Home was right there, almost within reach, but William shut me out again.The countdown on the system stopped.[You've been saved again.[Third attempt to leave failed.]I opened my eyes."Why did it fail again?" I asked.William froze.The fear quickly faded from his face.He became that aloof and untouchable "Mr. White Tower" once again."You picked today on purpose." His voice was still a bit rough."You wanted to see if I'd drop everything, even the opening ceremony and Leila, to come save you."You already have your answer."I'm here. Is that enough?""No." I stared at him. "You came too soon."The lingering fear in William's gaze suddenly froze."Emilia, Leila gets special treatment because she truly was ill," William said.He looked like my reaction had cut him deep, and his voice turned icy and sharp again.He said, "You realized you couldn't win against her, so you kept pretending to be more seriously ill each time."You hid in this old examination room on purpose to see who I'd save first."You wanted to make me prove that, no matter what, I'd always choose you."This time, I didn't argue with him.I slowly slipped my hand out of his palm."William, you never admit I'm your sister when other people are around," I said.When I was nineteen, I was swamped by the media.Every reporter was asking if I was the Finch family's daughter.They wanted to know if the Finch Group would protect me.William stood before the reporters and said, "She's an adult now."Her private life has nothing to do with the Finch family."Later, when Leila was accused of taking away someone else's chance at treatment, William called an emergency press conference that very night.In front of everyone, he publicly announced, "I see Leila as my little sister."The Finch Group will hold anyone accountable for malicious attacks against her."It wasn't that he didn't know how to protect his sister.But he decided Leila was the one worth protecting.When the press conference wrapped up, the system made its first decision.[William did not choose his own sister.[Family mission failed.]Half a year later, the system unlocked Harold Jackson for me.I looked up at William."That's why it felt so odd when you called yourself my brother and said you were here for me," I said.William swallowed hard."Family doesn't need to prove anything to outsiders," he said."Then why does Leila get that kind of proof?" I asked.He finally fell silent.I lowered my gaze. "You know perfectly well how to protect a sister."But you refuse to protect me."I glanced at the monitor next to me as it flickered back to life.The line showing I was still alive began to jump across the screen again.I asked, "Was it my brother who rushed in, or was it the doctor who couldn't stand to see a patient die?"Did you save your little sister, or was I another valuable research subject to you?"William answered without thinking, "To a doctor, every life matters."I nodded softly. "So the person you saved was nothing more than another patient barely hanging on.My brother stopped coming for me a long time ago."The only sound in the examination room was the steady hum of the machines.William kept holding my hand, never letting go.After a long silence, he finally spoke in a low voice, "When you calm down, we'll talk."I didn't tell him.I'd never been this clear-headed in my life.Later, I found out that before the opening ceremony started, William had checked on my condition three times.When my bracelet lost signal, the staff told him it was a temporary glitch with the device.He nodded.But when it was time to pin the badge on Leila, William caught sight of the gray line on the monitor.He stared at it for two seconds, shoved his chair aside, and stormed off the live broadcast stage.That night, William went back to check the blood samples and medical records I'd left at the institute.To his surprise, a lot of the files on the computer had vanished.It felt like some unseen force was slowly wiping me out of existence.The staff said it was probably a problem with the data storage.William kept staring at the results.In the end, he put everything under lock and key himself, making sure no one else could access them.Back then, William had no clue that another world and the brother who was really waiting for me to come home were both real.The next morning, William locked himself in the lab and checked everything three more times.The results stayed the same.My medical records kept vanishing, bit by bit.And Leila's upcoming treatment would need those records.If the records weren't complete, she wouldn't be able to continue her treatment.When the news got out, the first person to show up was Eric.He'd come from his foundation's gala, still wearing a perfectly tailored black suit, with silver cufflinks etched with baseball stitching.

Chapter 8