Chapter 4
I felt excruciating pain.
Sticky blood pooled on the floor. Before I passed out, I saw them surrounding Sarah, patting their chests in relief that she was okay.
When I woke up again, Anthony was looking at me with exhaustion written all over his face.
He said, “You’re finally awake. Don’t move your arm around- we just harvested skin from you. Keep it dry so it doesn’t scar.”
“Harvested skin?” I asked in confusion.
Anthony explained, “Glass shards from the chandelier cut Sarah’s face. The skin on the inside of your arm is more delicate, so I took the liberty of transplanting your skin to her.”
I trembled with rage and demanded, “Anthony, you keep talking about respecting human rights. What gives you the right to harm me without my consent?”
Anthony impatiently rubbed his temples.
He said, “I know you’re still mad about Sarah wearing your dress. I already scolded her for that. If you hadn’t thrown that tantrum, the celebration wouldn’t have been ruined and Sarah wouldn’t have gotten her face cut. Bottom line, you owe Sarah
all of this.”
1/4
Lowe Sarah?
12:36
already had several kids with some old bachelor up there by now. When Sarah said she had no friends, I brought her home and introduced her to these seven men. But I never imagined I was bringing disaster upon myself.
“Get out!” I grabbed the water cup beside me and splashed the water in Anthony’s face.
Anthony’s expression darkened, but he never left the hospital
room.
The day acceptance letters came out, I heard cheering from the room next door.
Then Anthony walked into my room and said, “Ariana, the eight of us are going to be classmates now. You need to tone down that temper of yours, or how will anyone ever like you?”
I sneered inwardly. Who cares about their fake affection?
What they didn’t know was that the day applications opened, I applied to the University of Washington right after midnight. To prevent them from tampering with my application, I created an alert system overnight. If anyone tried to log into my account without permission, the webpage would automatically redirect to a website I developed. And I had already received my acceptance letter from the University of Washington-I just never told them.
Anthony continued, “One item on Sarah’s graduation bucket list is to travel with everyone. You should come too.”
Panted to refuse, but I knew they’d force me to comply in the 36
Throughout the trip, I followed behind them like a ghost. Anthony, who used to hate taking photos, took countless pictures with Sarah.
When the seven of them went to play in the creek, Sarah looked
at me.
She said, “Ariana, no matter how much money you have, you can’t buy people’s hearts.”
I ignored her, but she glanced to the side and smiled eerily.
She said, “If you don’t believe me, I’ll prove it to you.”
Suddenly, Sarah used a stick to pick up a venomous snake from the grass and threw it at me.
I couldn’t dodge in time and felt a sharp pain in my leg. My body swayed and I nearly collapsed. Meanwhile, Sarah, who was completely unharmed, clutched her ankle and cried out.
The seven men rushed out of the water and hurried both Sarah
and me to the hospital.
When we arrived, the doctor said, “The hospital only has one vial of antivenom left. Ms. Hall’s condition looks more serious- the toxin has already spread through her system.”
The room fell silent except for Sarah’s quiet sobbing.
Sarah said hypocritically, “Give the antivenom to Ariana. My life isn’t worth much—it wouldn’t matter if I died.” 3/4
12:36
decision.
Anthony said, “Give it to Sarah first.”
The doctor was stunned and asked, “Sir, are you serious? From a medical standpoint, Ariana’s condition is more critical right now. If we delay the antivenom by even a minute, she could die. Sarah hasn’t shown any symptoms of poisoning yet. We’re already rushing another vial here.”
Anthony suddenly exploded, shouting, “I said save Sarah first! Didn’t you hear me?”
The doctor was terrified and quickly wheeled Sarah into the treatment room. I closed my eyes in despair, tears of hopelessness streaming down my face.
If I died, what would happen to Weston?
I was filled with hatred! If I had been decisive after my rebirth and kicked them all out immediately, wouldn’t I have avoided this desperate situation today?
When I woke up again, I was lying in a hospital bed once more.
The nurse said, “You’re awake. Thank goodness you’re finally okay.”
I asked, “What about the people who brought me to the hospital?”
