I Was the Unwanted Fifth in Their Life and Death Pact Chapter 04

Evan froze, clearly not expecting me to agree so easily.

Ryan laughed beside him.

“Naomi, you’re being so ungrateful.”

“You think calling off the engagement is reverse psychology to scare Evan? We’ll see how long you keep this up!”

Cole pulled Lily a half-step back and threw out a warning.

“Alright, you’ve got guts. If you walk out that door today, don’t hit that emergency button ever again when trouble comes. None of us will help you.”

Ms. Harris’s hands shook with anger as she pushed the wheelchair past them.

I didn’t look back. My voice echoed down the cold hallway.

“Don’t worry. I already cleared all of you.”

Back in my hospital room, I spent my final days in the country in peace.

During that time, I finished all online approvals for my transfer, handed over my work, and deleted every single one of my social media accounts.

Truly, they never came to find me.

It was pouring the day I was discharged.

I used my crutches to get a taxi back to my apartment.

I walked straight into the bedroom and dragged out the suitcase I’d brought when I first moved in.

There wasn’t much of my stuff left in the apartment; most things were gifts they’d given me over the years.

I grabbed a garbage bag.

I dumped every single one of those gifts, along with all that so-called family, friendship, and love, right inside.

Once I was done, I walked over to the coffee table in the living room.

I stared down at the diamond ring on my left ring finger.

My hand had swollen badly from days of IV drips, and the ring dug painfully into my swollen finger.

I gritted my teeth against the throbbing in my knuckles and twisted the ring free bit by bit.

Blood welled up where the metal scraped my skin.

I didn’t flinch. Finally, I pulled it off.

I set that blood-streaked ring and my apartment keys down on the coffee table.

Next to them sat a signed copy of the form confirming I’d removed all emergency contacts.

I closed the front door and never looked back.

Meanwhile, at an upscale restaurant downtown,

Evan kept checking his phone, a strange restlessness gnawing at him.

Lily sat across from him, politely placing a piece of meat onto his plate.

“Evan, is Naomi still upset with me? Maybe I should go apologize to her today.”

Ryan huffed and took another sip of wine.

“Apologize for what? She’s just stubborn and putting on an act.”

“I thought that cast on her leg looked fake. She’ll come crawling home to apologize tonight for sure.”

Ryan reached to refill his glass when his phone rang.

It was an unfamiliar landline number.

“Who is this?”

The voice on the line was formal and serious.

“Are you a family member of Ms. Naomi? This is Officer Miller with the Metro Police Traffic Division.”

Ryan froze, the sneer dying on his face, cigarette still pinched between his fingers.

“What stunt is she pulling now? Did she get someone to pretend to be a cop?”

The officer ignored his mockery and kept going.

“At eleven o’clock the night of the twenty-fourth, a severe multi-car pileup happened on the interstate highway. Ms. Naomi Hayes’s vehicle was crushed and totaled in the crash.”

The dining room fell silent.

The impatience on Ryan’s face slowly hardened.

Evan and Cole both stopped eating and stared over at him.

The officer paused before continuing.

“The victim suffered a severe fracture to her right leg and spent two days in ICU before stabilizing.”

“She tried calling you four times using that emergency app on her phone, but every call was rejected.”

“We’re investigating the crash and need you to come in to provide a statement and assist with the investigation.”

The call ended.

Ryan’s wine glass slipped from his grasp and shattered on the floor.

The three of them rushed out of the restaurant, running red lights all the way to my apartment.

Evan’s hands shook as he pushed the door open…