8
My corpse was not a pretty sight.
My features were still twisted in the agony of my final moments. Lividity had already set in, mottling my skin with dark patches.
The blood that had pooled around me was turning black,
I couldn’t smell it, but I knew the stench must have been unbearable.
Adrian, however, seemed oblivious to it all.
He walked slowly towards my body, then knelt and gave my shoulder a gentle push.
Chapter 2
“Rosalie, stop pretending. I’m here.”
“Get up. Come on, get up and slap me. Kick me. I don’t care.”
“I’m begging you, please… just stop pretending.”
“How could you be dead? I poisoned you myself, and you didn’t die. How could thirty–three lashes kill you?”
His back was to me, so I couldn’t see his face.
All I could see were his shoulders, shaking violently.
I rolled my eyes.
Is he really that happy about this?
Adrian stayed by my body for the entire night..
1444 02
He didn’t say another word. He just sat there like man possessed, humming the same nursery rhyme over and over again.
I remembered it. Mom had taught it to us when we were children.
She said it could make you forget your pain, just for a little while.
So whenever one of us was sick, the other would sit by their bed and sing that song.
I listened to his hoarse, broken voice and watched the moon rise outside the window. A strange, unfamiliar ache settled in my che-
- st.
“You bastard.”
“It’s too late for that now.”
When dawn broke, Adrian finally forced himself away from my side.
He staggered, nearly falling, and had to lean against the wall to steady himself.
Not long after, the lawyer arrived with people from the funeral home.
But Adrian refused to let them take my body.
His eyes were a terrifying shade of red. He spoke, each word heavy with grim determination.
“I want an autopsy. I need to know… I need to know why she died.”
The results came back quickly. When he learned it was brain cancer, Adrian lost control. He tore the report to shreds.
Then, as if remembering something, his body swayed, and he collapsed to his knees.
In front of everyone, he began to weep like a lost child,
“The blood you coughed up that day… it was real. You were really sick.”
“It’s all my fault!”
“Sister… if I had just gotten you to a doctor sooner… would you still be alive?”
I looked away, embarrassed for him.
Penny, who was still dreaming of becoming Mrs. Sterling, never expected Adrian to find my body so soon.
She also never expected it would take him less than an hour to uncover every single one of her wicked deeds.
Chapter 2
When she heard Adrian wanted to see her, she arrived full of joyful anticipation.
But the moment she walked in, Adrian’s hands were around her throat.
He squeezed, his knuckles turning white, as if he wanted nothing more than to snap her neck.
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Penny tried to ask why, but then she saw her own family, tied up and trembling in the corner of the room, and she understood ever-
ything.
Her voice was a desperate, strangled plea. “Adrian… I was wrong to deceive you… but I did it because I love you.”
“You said it yourself… you said I was the only person in the world who was good to you.”
At her words, Adrian’s fury intensified.
He threw her to the ground and brought his foot down hard on her hand.
With a sickening crack, the sound of splintering bone mixed with her piercing scream.
“You orchestrated the car crash that drove a wedge between my sister and me.”
“Not only that, you knew she was terminally ill, yet you deliberately deceived me, manipulated me into distrusting her.”
“Penny.”
“However much I once loved you is how much I hate you now.”
Penny stared at Adrian’s demonic expression, her body shaking with terror.
vi
But she still tried to bluff. “Go on, kill me then! If you have the guts, do it!”
Adrian laughed, a chilling, mirthless sound. He grabbed her by the hair and yanked her to her feet.
“Don’t forget. I’m the last mad dog of the Sterling family. And I’m even crazier than my sister.”
“Did you really think I’d let you die so easily?”
A horrifying realization dawned on Penny, and her eyes widened in terror.
Watching her, I knew, in that moment, she would have rather been locked away in a prison cell for the rest of her life.
9
Adrian’s methods were, indeed, monstrous.
He acquired vials containing a cocktail of deadly viruses.
One by one, he had them injected into Penny’s body.
But he also provided her with the world’s most advanced medical team, ensuring she stayed alive.
And so, Penny’s body became a living petri dish, a vessel for a hundred different diseases.
Miraculously, she survived for five years.
And for five years, I watched
I watched her struggle in agony, watched her be ravaged by sickness.
The resentment in my heart had long since faded.
But for some reason, I still couldn’t leave.
Chapter 2
Penny finally died.
But Adrian’s thirst for vengeance was not quenched.
He had her body thrown into a wild animal enclosure.
Then he had her ashes scattered in a stagnant, filthy marsh.
He had truly made her bones to dust and scattered her ashes to the winds.
1444
After it was all done, Adrian, his hair now streaked with gray, knelt before the memorial tablets of our parents and me, and drank until morning.
He lived in that house for another five years.
Sometimes, his mind would break.
He would see us, still alive.
He’d set the table with all our favorite foods.
I would sit there, a silent observer, and watch him talk to the empty chairs.
Everyone knew he had gone mad
The few people who still ass with him slowly drifted away.
But Adrian clung on.
He waited until the Sterling Group was an unshakeable, multi–billion dollar empire.
Then, he made a decision that enraged every executive on his board.
He sold the entire company.
Every last cent was donated to charities in impoverished rural areas.
He even sold the house.
The night a new family moved in, a drunken Adrian stood outside, smiling foolishly for hours.
Eventually, they mistook him for a lunatic and had him thrown out.
He didn’t get angry. He just curled up on the sidewalk, clutching his leg, and cried for his mom, his dad, and his sister all through
the night.
Watching him like this, I knew.
He couldn’t hold on much longer.
Sure enough, one day, I saw him huddled in a dark alley, his trembling hands pulling a single vial from his coat pocket. A virus.
I tried to stop him, but I was too late.
Adrian’s eyes grew hazy, his focus blurring.
Then, with a sudden burst of strength, he stood up and looked directly at me.
“Sister.”
His voice shook as he stared right at my ghostly form.
“Am 1…. am I really not dreaming?”
4-424-1
Chapter 2
I looked at him calmly and sighed. “I’m already dead. Can’t you just let me go?”
He floated anxiously towards me, his words tumbling out in a rush.
“I know I was wrong. I was so stupid. You were right to call me an idiot–that’s what I am.”
“How could I have believed a stranger over you?”
“Sister, I can’t believe I’m really seeing you again.”
By the end, his voice was thick and raw.
I drifted back, keeping my distance. “You don’t have to do this. I’ve already forgiven you.”
At my words, a flicker of hope ignited in his eyes.
“Then… in our next life… can we be siblings again?”
“No, let’s be brother and sister, but
be the older brother. I’ll protect you for a lifetime.”
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I just smiled and shook my head. I could feel the ties that bound me to this world growing lighter, weaker.
I knew it was time for me to go.
“Adrian, the powers that be told me our connection was only for this lifetime.”
“If you want to atone, then live a good life.”
With that, I reached out and gave his spirit a firm, decisive push.
He tried to resist, but his soul was forced back into his body.
At that moment, someone found him collapsed in the alley, coughing up blood, and immediately called for an ambulance.
As they loaded him onto a stretcher, his head lolled weakly to one side, his eyes searching for me. His lips moved, forming silent
words.
“Sister… I don’t want to be alone anymore.”
“It hurts so much. Please, take me with you.”
I didn’t answer him. A voice, calm and final, spoke in my ear.
“Rosalie Sterling, your earthly grievances have been resolved. You may now pass on.”
I gave Adrian one last look, then turned and stepped into a blindingly brilliant white light.
[End of Story]
