They Loved Their White Moonlight, Till I Disappeared Forever Chapter 03

They Loved Their White Moonlight, Till I Disappeared Forever Chapter 03

When we walked into Matteo’s brownstone in Brooklyn Heights, the household staff were bustling about, preparing a room. The courtyard was filled with Seraphina’s favorite white oleanders.

Matteo was on his way out, carrying an exquisitely wrapped gift box. The smile on his face vanished the instant he saw me.

“You have the nerve to come back here? I figured you’d have died in a gutter by now.”

I stood frozen, remembering a time when Matteo wasn’t like this.

Matteo and I lost our parents when we were young. After that, we were all each other had.

The Vitales were a family of doctors. Matteo had wanted to be a surgeon since he was a child. To save up for his tuition, I worked every job I could find.

Once, on a rainy day, I nearly died in a hospital just to collect the stipend for a high-risk clinical trial.

That was the first time I saw the normally gentle Matteo lose his temper. He rushed into the ward, held me, and cried, saying he would rather never become a doctor than lose me.

He said that without me, he had no home.

But ever since we took in a homeless Seraphina, I was no longer the only sister in his heart.

Seraphina was frail. Matteo gave her the experimental drug I had spent years developing, the one I had planned to sell to a pharmaceutical company for patent fees.

Seraphina thought the medicine was too bitter and secretly poured it down the drain.

I confronted her, and Matteo accused me of caring more about money than Seraphina’s health.

“Helena, are patent fees really more important to you than Seraphina’s life?”

Later, after Seraphina disappeared, Matteo reported me for mental instability and drug abuse. My medical license was revoked.

“Someone like you doesn’t deserve to be a doctor. From now on, I don’t have a sister.”

After that, my hands, trained for years to hold a scalpel, were useless. I was fired from a fast-food job because they trembled. Every look I got was one of contempt.

Zane shifted uncomfortably. After a moment’s hesitation, he spoke.

“Seraphina’s back. Merritt cut ties with everyone else. Helena couldn’t take it. She tried to kill herself twice in front of me just now…”

Matteo frowned.

“She’s putting on a show. Trying to get us to soften. Zane, you’re a smart guy. How could you fall for it? I know Helena better than anyone. She’s too vain to actually go through with it.”

Zane’s tension seemed to ease, and he gave a self-deprecating smile, as if annoyed he’d overreacted.

Matteo lifted the gift box in his hand, his gaze contemptuous.

“I’m going to the Sinclair house to give Seraphina her gift. I don’t have time for your tantrum. You’d better be gone by the time I get back tonight—”

Before he could finish, I reached out, plucked an oleander leaf, and shoved it into my mouth.

The color drained from Matteo’s face.

Oleander was poisonous. But as long as Seraphina liked it, Matteo found a way to make it bloom even in a New York winter.

I had objected to planting it in the courtyard, afraid someone might accidentally eat it. Seraphina had cried for days, refusing to eat.

“Does my sister hate me so much that she won’t even let you plant flowers for me?”

Matteo had shielded Seraphina behind him and sneered at me.

“If you’re going to go after Seraphina, at least find a better excuse. This stuff is so bitter. Who would actually eat it?”

I never thought it would be the thing to finally help me leave.

An acrid bitterness flooded my mouth. I fought back the nausea and forced myself to swallow.

This time, I would get to go home.