The Day the Tragic Heroine Chose Herself Chapter 06

The Day the Tragic Heroine Chose Herself Chapter 06

I looked at my parents. They were barely in their fifties, but their hair had gone almost completely

white.

In the real world, they’d burned through almost everything they had. Every dollar, every favor, every last connection, all of it spent fighting to keep me alive until I could come back.

Seven hundred million in the bank and my health restored. All I wanted now was time with them A quiet life. A real one.

As for that world collapsing? They did it to themselves. I had nothing left to mourn

My mind was made up. But the system wasn’t finished.

[Ever since they watched you die, the story world has been falling apart.]

[And right before you left, Elias pulled that trigger. Don’t you want to know what happened to Hazel?]

That stopped me.

I told the system to show me. Everything that happened after I died.

I watched it unfold like a movie. Detached. Finally free.

Elias had the gun aimed at Hazel. He pulled the trigger.

The gun

clicked empty. He’d burned through every round when he shot up the room.

Hazel had collapsed on the floor, shaking so violently she was hyperventilating. She scrambled backward until she hit the wall. She looked pathetic.

I almost felt sorry for her. Almost.

“See? He didn’t actually do it. You think he didn’t know the gun was empty? It was just for show,” I

said.

The system disagreed.

[No. In that moment, he meant to kill her.]

I let it go. It didn’t matter now.

I’d only ever sponsored Hazel because she was an orphan, and I felt sorry for her.

I paid for her medical school. Eventually, my father took her in as his adopted daughter, at least

officially.

In the beginning, I treated her like a real sister.

But the closer she got to my family, the farther they drifted from me.

They decided I was bullying her. Using her. Treating her like a servant.

By the end, even Leo flinched when I tried to hold him. He thought my discipline was cruelty.

While I was in treatment, Hazel sent me photos. Videos. More than once.

Every birthday, every holiday, every family gathering. Hazel was always front and center.

Was I jealous? Of course I was.

But more than that, I was grateful. I was too sick to be there for them. She was.

It wasn’t until I found out the truth that I saw it for what it was. Every photo, every video. Calculated.

Meant to twist the knife.

I used to believe we’d saved each other. That what we had was unbreakable.

But people change. And love, apparently, came with an expiration date.

Hazel was still sobbing on the floor when a voice cut through the chaos. Old, and sharp as a blade.

“Celine is dead and none of you can explain why. And you have the nerve to stand there?”

It was the Ashford family’s senior advisor. My mother’s right hand when she was alive.

And the only person in that world who had never turned on me.

His gaze fell on my body. Something in his face broke, just for a second, before he locked it away.

He called in Simon Bennett, the best forensic specialist in Ravenwood City. He ordered an

immediate medical examination right there, in front of everyone.

My father stepped forward. “She’s gone. Let her rest in peace…”

The advisor turned on him with a look sharp enough to draw blood.

“You married into this family because of Eleanor’s name. Without her, you wouldn’t have made through the front gate. So don’t you dare tell me what to do with her daughter.”

My father’s face drained. He shut his mouth.

Simon arrived within the hour. The examination was done right there, with the entire room

watching.

Thirty minutes later, Simon looked up at the advisor. His expression said it all.

“Sir, there was no trace of cancer in her body. None.”

“What I did find was a high concentration of controlled substances in her system. The kind that suppresses the nervous system. They would’ve kept her sedated, emotionally numb. Barely functional.”

Simon’s voice faltered.

“Her stomach was completely empty. She hadn’t eaten in days. However long this went on… she was

suffering.”

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Every eye in the room turned to Hazel, still collapsed on the floor.

“Who told you to do this?”

Elias’s eyes were bloodshot, nearly wild. He seized Hazel by the collar and hauled her up from the floor. “Who told you to do this to her?!”

My father was right behind him. “I told you to help her! Not torture her!”