I Saved My Brother, But He Killed Me Softly Chapter 05

I Saved My Brother, But He Killed Me Softly Chapter 05

When Ethan finally made it back home, it was already nine in the evening.

The lights in the living room were off, and the entire apartment was shrouded in a heavy silence.

“Sienna?”

He called out my name, but no one answered.

He swapped his shoes, placing a takeout container of porridge on the dining table.

It was just the leftovers Nadia hadn’t finished; he’d brought it back for his sister’s dinner simply because he hated seeing it go to waste.

“Throwing another tantrum,” Ethan muttered under his breath as he pushed open my bedroom door.

Catching the faint spill of light drifting in from the living room, he saw me sitting perfectly still in my wheelchair, dressed in that faded, light blue dress.

“It’s the middle of the night. Why are you just sitting here instead of sleeping?”

He walked into the room and flipped on the overhead light.

“I brought you some porridge. Come out and eat something.”

I didn’t move.

Ethan frowned, stepping closer until he stood right in front of the wheelchair.

“Sienna, did you hear me talking to you?”

He reached out and gave my shoulder a firm nudge.

Yielding completely to his touch, my body listed sharply to the side. My prosthetic leg slammed violently against the frame of the wheelchair, letting out a dull, heavy thud.

Ethan’s hand froze dead in midair as he finally saw my face.

I was as pale as a sheet of paper. Dried, dark red blood smeared my lips and ran from my nose. Down below, the light blue skirt was marred by a scattering of hideous, blooming crimson stains.

“Sienna?”

His voice began to crack and tremble.

Dropping to his knees, he began frantically fumbling to touch my face. It was freezing, stripped of even a fraction of warmth.

“Stop messing around, Sienna… I was wrong, okay? I shouldn’t have snapped at you…”

He forced a grotesque smile that looked cruder than crying, reaching a trembling finger beneath my nose to check for a breath.

There was nothing.

Ethan recoiled his hand violently, as if he had just been scorched by open flame. It was then that his eyes landed on the empty prescription bottles scattered across the table.

The sleeping pills, the heavy painkillers—all entirely empty.

“No… No, this can’t be happening…”

Scrambling on his hands and knees, he threw himself forward, dragging me down from the wheelchair onto the floor as he began to frantically pump my chest with CPR.

“Sienna! Wake up! Goddamn it, wake up!”

He threw his entire weight into the compressions, forcing a sharp, brittle crack from my ribs.

But there wasn’t a single flicker of life.

Nadia, having grown impatient waiting outside, chose that exact moment to saunter into the bedroom.

“Ethan, what the hell is taking you so long? Did she fill out the asylum forms yet—”

The words died in her throat. Nadia stared at my crumpled form on the floor, surrounded by a sea of empty pill bottles.

“Ah!”

She let out a piercing shriek, stumbling backward until she landed hard on her rear. “She’s… she’s dead!”

Ethan’s eyes were bloodshot, practically wild, as he roared at her, “Call 911! Call an ambulance right now!”

The paramedics arrived shortly after. They ran a few swift diagnostic scans across my body before looking up to offer a slow, grim shake of their heads.

“Her pupils are fixed and dilated, and livor mortis has already begun to set in. She’s been gone for at least six hours. You should start preparing for the funeral arrangements.”

Six hours.

The timeline traced back exactly to the moment he had hung up on me, snarling that he was exhausted.

Ethan sat on the floor, staring completely blankly into space.

When the paramedics moved forward to lift my body onto the stretcher, he suddenly snapped, throwing himself over my corpse like a madman and clinging to me with a suffocating grip.

“Don’t touch her! She isn’t dead! She’s just asleep!”

He pressed his cheek flush against my cold neck, desperately trying to use his own body heat to warm my skin back to life.

“Sienna, Ethan’s going to buy you a brand-new dress, okay? I’m not getting married anymore. Please, just open your eyes and look at me, please!”

He wept hysterically, and between his ragged breaths, he raised his hand and began savagely striking his own face.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

The sharp, echoing cracks of his palms hitting his cheeks filled the quiet room.

Blood quickly began to leak from the corner of his mouth, but he didn’t seem to feel a shred of the pain.

“I did this to you… It was me…”

Nadia shrank back into the shadow of the doorway, watching Ethan’s violent breakdown as her entire body shuddered with sheer terror.