I Was the Unwanted Fifth in Their Life and Death Pact Chapter 05

The apartment was dark and spotless, empty of any trace of me.

Evan rushed to the coffee table.

He spotted the emergency-contact removal form at once, and the blood-flecked engagement ring sitting on

top.

Evan pulled out his phone and dialed my number frantically.

Only a flat automated voice answered, “Sorry, the number you dialed does not exist.”

At that moment, the airplane carrying me was climbing into the night sky.

I watched the city lights shrink beneath the window, leaving my entire past behind.

Evan held the phone to his ear, listening to the dead tone.

He spun around and stormed into the bedroom.

Her side of the room was completely bare.

Ryan stood beside the coffee table, clutching the signed emergency-contact removal form.

At the bottom was Naomi Hayes’s signature.

Ryan lifted his head abruptly.

“She canceled her phone number just because we argued with her at the hospital? She left her home

entirely?”

Cole didn’t speak. He squatted down by the entryway and carefully pulled open the trash bag.

Cole’s voice trembled. “Ryan, Evan…”

Ryan and Evan turned toward him at once.

Inside the bag lay all the gifts they’d given Naomi over the years.

The music box Cole had bought her.

The plush toy Ryan had picked up as an afterthought from his office.

The cheap plastic bracelet Evan had picked up from a street stall.

A sharp pain shot through Evan’s chest. He suddenly remembered the day he slipped that plastic bracelet

onto Naomi’s wrist. She’d beamed at him, her eyes bright with joy.

She’d told him anything he gave her would be priceless to her.

Now all those “priceless” treasures were tossed in the trash.

Evan grabbed his car keys and headed for the door.

“Her office.”

Thirty minutes later, the three of them burst through the office door.

Mr. Laurent looked up from his stacks of paperwork and stared at the three men storming in.

“Who are you looking for?”

Evan leaned over his desk.

“Where’s Naomi? Is she at work today, or did she take leave?”

Mr. Laurent glanced them over and leaned back in his chair.

“What’s your relationship to her?”

Ryan slammed his palm on the table.

“I’m her fiancé, this is her older brother. Tell us where she is, don’t waste our time.”

Mr. Laurent stood and let out a cold laugh.

“Oh, you’re too late. Naomi took a five-year overseas posting to the Pallavia office. Her flight left last night.

She’s probably already landed.”

Ryan grabbed Mr. Laurent by the shoulder.

“An overseas posting? Her leg’s still in a cast! Your company’s just working people to the bone-don’t you

care whether she lives or dies?”

Mr. Laurent roughly shook Ryan’s hand off and shot him a sharp look.

“What right do you, her so-called family, have to talk about her life? The night of her crash, the driver fled. She lay alone in the pouring rain for over an hour.”

“She tried that emergency app four times to reach you, and every single call got rejected.”

“A bystander finally called 911.”

Mr. Laurent pulled a copy from his desk drawer and slapped it on the table.

“She spent two days in the ICU. The very first thing she did once she moved to a regular ward was contact

me about the transfer.”

“Get out. Don’t ever show your faces here again.”

Evan stared down at the copy. It was Naomi’s overseas assignment application.

Under “Reason for Request,” she’d written just three words: No ties left.

Evan froze on the spot.

Car crash.

Torrential rain.

Four rejected calls.

ICU.

Each word hit him like a punch to the gut.

Ryan stumbled backward, hitting the doorframe.

“That can’t be… She’d just gotten out of the ICU-how could she even sit up in that wheelchair…?”

Cole’s face turned deathly pale. He spun and rushed for the door.

“To the hospital. We need to find out exactly how badly she was hurt!”

When the three men rushed to the hospital, the officer handling the crash was reviewing medical records

obtained through official channels. The head nurse laid copies of the paperwork on the table.

She recognized them-the same three men who’d confronted Naomi and caused a scene in the ER lobby

days earlier.

“Read it. Open compound fracture of the right tibia, mild TBI, and widespread soft-tissue contusions.”

Evan’s hand hovered mid-air, unable to bring himself to turn the page.

Ryan snatched the medical chart, his eyes locking onto one form: the surgical risk consent document.

The line for emergency contact signature sat blank. Only the patient’s signature, Naomi Hayes, marked the

page.

A faint smudge of blood stained the paper right beside her handwriting.

The head nurse’s tone turned sharp and mocking.

“She was lucky to survive. When she arrived, she’d gone into shock from blood loss and hypothermia.”

“The doctors told her to call family to sign the surgical consent form. She grabbed the attending doctor’s sleeve and said she had no family to reach. She signed the papers herself.”

“She passed out the moment the pen left the paper, and was rushed straight into the OR.”

The nurse nodded toward the doorway.

“She’s already discharged and gone. What’s this? Some belated guilt trip?”

Evan’s legs buckled, his knee slamming hard against the edge of the records desk.

He stared at that blood-flecked surgical consent form, his fists clenching tight.

Ryan slid down the wall to the floor, burying his face. His shoulders shook with silent, ragged breaths.

This was his little sister, the person he’d grown up beside for more than twenty years.

What had he been doing on that rainy night when she was in agony, terrified, and desperate for him?

He’d been cutting cake for Lily.

He’d mocked her in the group chat, accusing her of craving attention.

He’d snapped at her over the phone, calling her unreasonable.

Cole leaned against the doorframe, jaw clenched tight as he fought back tears…

Early the next morning, the three went straight to the Metro Police Traffic Division.