My Brain Fades, His Hate Never Ends Chapter 04

My Brain Fades, His Hate Never Ends Chapter 04

I stood before the huge glass tank, my hands and feet ice‑cold.

Two items lay at the bottom.

A ring. A necklace.

I could only grab one first.

“Why aren’t you moving?”

Elias’s voice was ice, like it came from hell.

“Planning to pick one to bargain with me?”

Scarlett leaned against him, voice weak and fake.

“Elias, don’t push her.

My necklace isn’t important. Let it go.”

“Miss Cole obviously thinks your ring is worth more.”

Her words lit a fuse in Elias.

“Elara, I’ve changed my mind.

You get Scarlett’s necklace first.”

“The ring? I don’t want you to have it anymore.”

He was doing this on purpose.

He wanted to watch me abandon our last connection for m0ney.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

Then I jumped into the freezing water.

Suffocation crashed over me at once.

I couldn’t swim.

I sank.

Water pressed against my eardrums and my lungs.

I thrashed wildly, arms and legs flailing.

Through blurred water, I saw the two outside the tank.

Elias stood cold and still.

Scarlett wore a tiny, triumphant smile.

They watched me like I was a dying bug.

My vision started to fade.

I thought I was going to die.

Then the recorder in my pocket lit up.

I used my last strength to press play.

Jude’s voice floated weakly through the water.

“Elara, you’re Elara Cole. You’re my baby sister.”

Brother.

I still had my brother.

I couldn’t die.

Survival burst through me, raw and desperate.

I kicked wildly and somehow floated upward.

My hand touched something hard and cold.

The ring.

I ignored the necklace.

I clutched the ring tight and swam upward with everything I had.

Splash.

I broke the surface, gasping, coughing up water.

“What did you grab?”

Elias’s voice was frigid.

I opened my palm.

The diamond ring glinted harshly under the lights.

Scarlett’s face twisted.

“Elara! What is wrong with you?”

“I begged you to get my necklace, and you only grabbed the ring?

You really do care about nothing but m0ney!”

Elias’s eyes looked ready to tear me apart.

He stepped forward, snatched the ring from my hand.

Then he threw it hard onto the floor in front of me.

“Elara, you make me sick.”

He lifted his foot, ready to crush the ring.

“No!”

I threw myself over it, shielding the ring with my body.

Elias’s foot hovered over my back.

He didn’t step down, but the weight of him crushed my chest.

“That desperate for it?”

He sneered.

“Risk your life just for m0ney?”

I lay on the floor, soaking wet and humiliated.

I only knew the ring felt important.

I couldn’t let it be destroyed.

“Elias, let it go,” Scarlett said, walking over, fake‑kind.

“She loves m0ney that much. Let her have it.

You love me now, anyway.”

“This ring is just trash to me.”

Elias slowly lowered his foot.

“You’re right.

No point wasting time on trash.”

He turned and wrapped an arm around Scarlett.

“We’re leaving. Don’t let this filth ruin our day.”

They acted like gods who’d judged me guilty, then walked away.

I was left alone in the hall.

I pushed myself off the cold floor and picked up the ring.

Something was carved inside the band.

I leaned closer.

Two initials.

E.V. & E.C.

My head exploded in sharp, stabbing pain.

Broken memories flooded my mind like a tidal wave.

“Elara, marry me.”

“I love you, Elias Voss.”

“Unplug it… it hurts…”

“Elara Cole! Don’t you dare!”

“Help…”

“No…”

“Ah!”

I grabbed my head and screamed in agony.

My body convulsed. My vision blurred.

I forgot how to breathe.

I was suffocating.

Then the basement door burst open.

Jude rushed in like a madman, with a doctor in a white coat behind him.

“Elara!”

He saw me on the floor, and his eyes turned red instantly.

The doctor rushed over to help me.

Elias and Scarlett hadn’t gone far. They heard the noise and came back.

Elias stared, froze for a second, then sneered.

“Elara, new trick now?”

“Pretending to have a seizure?

You’ll do anything to keep me around, won’t you?”

Jude charged and punched Elias hard across the face.

“Shut the hell up!”

His eyes were bloodshot, a beast cornered and desperate.

“She’s not acting!”

“She’s sick!”

Elias wiped blood from his lip, gaze dark and vicious.

“Yeah, she’s sick—greedy is her worst disease!”

“No!” Jude screamed, broken.

“She’s really sick! The doctor’s right here!”

He pointed at the doctor treating me, voice cracking.

“She has progressive cerebral atrophy! She’s dying, you bastard!

What the hell did you do to her?!”