They Pawned My Health For Her Happiness. And Now I’m Dead Chapter 09

They Pawned My Health For Her Happiness. And Now I’m Dead Chapter 09

At those words, my mother’s mouth fell open.

She gasped for air but couldn’t get a single word out.

I hovered in midair. Looked down, Saw the livestreamer’s phone.

The comments had flipped.

[Not a script after all. But I said it–Nova couldn’t have hurt her sister. She died in that crash.]

My death had turned the tide.

Everyone who’d cursed me moments ago was now saying how sorry they felt.

How young I was.

How cruel that I died and still got blamed by my own family.

The livestreamer looked at his phone. Then at my urn.

He fell silent. Then he bowed.

And ended the stream.

Iris was shaking. Mumbling, “No. No, that can’t be.”

She stumbled backward–and vomited blood.

Clutching her stomach, screaming in pain.

A woman in the crowd shook her head, “That looks like a stomach bleed.”

“My son had the same thing. Somebody call 911.”

My mother crawled forward, silent tears streaming, trying to reach Celine.

Halfway there, her eyes went blank.

“What am I doing here? I need to go home.”

Then she stopped. Her voice shot up.

“No! I don’t want to go home!”

She said it was because I was there. She didn’t want to see me.

Because the hardest years, when she and my father had nothing, she lived through them with me.

She hated me for it.

My heart raced, then crashed.

That was it. That was why she hated me..

Something so simple. So absurd.

My father’s eyes went wide.

He opened his mouth–no sound came out.

Then his left ankle twisted at a sickening angle.

He hit the ground. Tried to brace himself with his elbow.

His elbow snapped.

Everything they were going through–I’d been through it all before.

I watched. I didn’t know what I felt.

Maybe a little satisfaction. But the rest I couldn’t name.

The ambulance came. Took my parents and Celine away.

When the medics asked Luca what to do, he was curled on the ground, clutching my urn.

Someone tried to pull him up.

He fought them off like a wild animal.

Eventually, the crowd cleared.

Luca got up slowly, like a puppet on strings.

He didn’t say a word. Got in the car.

His face was stone. He drove.

The trip that usually took over an hour–he did it in forty minutes.

He stopped in front of the pawn shop.

The moment he opened the door, he fell.

He crawled inside.

“I want to pawn something!” His voice cracked,

“My life. I pawn my life. Bring tny wife back!”

I stared at him. Something complicated stirred in my chest.

“Transaction denied.”

The pawnbroker’s voice came from the dark.

“You can’t pawn what belongs to the dead. It brings bad luck.”

“I don’t care about bad luck!” Luca screamed, “I don’t care about any of it! Just bring her back!”

“Transaction denied.”

The voice was flat.

“But I can give you a memory.‘

Luca’s eyes went blank.

The pawnbroker turned to me. Met my gaze.

“One for you too.”

When I came back from the memory, time had passed.

Luca lay flat on the floor.

He was clutching my urn and that shirt.

He had no strength left. Just silent tears.

They hit the ground and left dark patches.

I understood now.

The reason he’d switched to Celine–it was all a mistake.

A fire. When we were twelve. I pulled him out.

He always thought it was me.

For a while, he was right.

But then my mother told him, “It wasn’t Nova who saved you. It was Celine.”

And he believed her.

My eyes burned. I gritted my teeth. I didn’t let another tear fall.

The pawnbroker looked at me.

“You should go.”

A circle of light appeared at the door.

I didn’t understand.

“I pawned my place in heaven-”

“Someone else paid the price. The deal is done.”

I pressed my lips together. Nodded.

I turned toward the door.

As I stepped into the light, I felt a gaze on my back. Hot. Familiar.

I didn’t turn around.

I smiled.

And walked into my new life.