My Family Gave My Life to My Sister Chapter 05

My Family Gave My Life to My Sister Chapter 05

I floated in midair, staring at the right hand Mom had lifted.

Only a thin strip of flesh still connected my palm to my wrist.

The bones inside had been completely shattered.

When Mom yanked my hand up, my broken wrist sagged crookedly, like a torn piece of old clothing

Sunlight fell across the break.

Jagged white bone fragments protruded from it.

The blood had dried long ago, leaving behind a dark red crust.

The thick blankets beneath me had already been soaked through with dark, almost black blood.

The sharp smell of blood mixed with the stench of decay and swept through the entire room.

Mom froze.

She couldn’t make a sound.

Someone in the crowd whispered,

“Oh my God… what the hell…?”

“She’s dead?”

“How did she die?”

“How could she be dead?”

“Oh my God…”

“When did this happen?”

More and more voices joined in, growing Jouder by the second.

They buzzed through the room like flies.

Some people backed away.

Some covered their mouths.

Others turned and ran straight out.

Confetti still clung to the ceiling.

Red and green scraps of paper covered the floor, some falling onto my blood-soaked blankets.

The bright colors stood out starkly against them.

Grant remained frozen on one knee beside the bed.

He looked completely dazed.

The white roses he’d been clutching in his arms had already slipped free and rolled onto the floor.

The diamond engagement ring he’d worked so hard to retrieve slid from his fingers too and hit the

floor hard.

A faint metallic clink cut clearly through the chaos.

Grant remained frozen on one knee, still in the position he’d taken to propose.

His entire body was rigid.

“Hannah…”

“You’re joking, right?”

“No… that’s impossible…”

He shook his head.

“Yesterday…”

“Yesterday, I…”

His voice died before he could finish.

Yesterday, he’d walked down the wedding aisle with Aubrey.

Yesterday, he’d smiled in front of everyone.

Yesterday, he’d shut me in my room and told me to calm down.

Dad took a step forward.

His eyes locked on the caved-in area around my waist.

“Han…”

“Hannah?”

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“Come on…”

“Don’t do this…”

He reached toward me.

But halfway there, his hand jerked back as if the air itself had burned him.

Mom suddenly burst out laughing.

Loudly.

Tears streamed down her face at the same time.

“This is fake!”

“Hannah’s just trying to scare me!”

“This has to be some kind of prank!”

“She just doesn’t want to say yes!”

“She did all this just to scare us!”

But everything in front of them told them the truth.

I was really dead.

Then came a sharp knock at the door.

Several police officers stepped inside, their expressions solemn.

“Is this Hannah’s home?”

“There was a drunk-driving crash at Westbrook Intersection two days ago.”

“The driver responsible for the crash has been taken into custody.”

“The victim has been identified as Hannah.”

“Her ID information is…”

The officer’s cold, official words struck Mom, Dad, and Grant like a bolt of lightning.

In an instant, all the memories they’d deliberately pushed aside came rushing back.

They finally remembered.

The day of the accident, Aubrey and I had gone out together to buy Mom a birthday gift.

Not long after we left, a drunk driver slammed into us.

And they finally remembered who had been the first person to stumble back home that day.

Aubrey.

She’d stumbled in disheveled, sobbing hysterically.

Through her sobs, she said she’d been in a car accident.

She said the System had given her a System trial that would allow her to return to life.

If everyone gave her whatever she wanted and she successfully won them all over, she could

survive.

Because she’d said her life depended on it, everyone gave in without question, indulging her and giving her everything she wanted.

Again and again, they ignored my pain.

Ignored every explanation I tried to give.

They even planned the grand wedding between Aubrey and Grant just to fulfill the wishes tied to her

mission.

A wedding that should have been mine.

I had been right there beside them.

Standing in this very room.

Telling them over and over again,

“I was in the car accident too!”

“I’m doing the System mission too!”

“If I fail, I’ll die!”

I said it so many times.

But no one could hear me.

I drifted back to my own body and crouched beside it.

My heart ached as I wrapped my arms around myself.

“It’s okay, Hannah.”

“Everything’s okay now.”