1 The afternoon they told me I was dying, Danny Blackwood popped a bottle of champagne in his lab. His new social media post showed his and Vivian’s silhouettes bathed in the sunset's glow, their white lab coats stained gold. The caption was a single, triumphant line: “Ten years. A breakthrough at last.” Everyone said it was the height of devotion. Professor Blackwood, working tirelessly for a decade, all to save me. The nurse handed me her phone, her eyes welling with tears, as I stared at the wavering line on my heart monitor. What none of them knew was that the drug had been ready a year ago. And I was the only candidate who wasn’t allowed to use it. … Danny finally showed up at the hospital late that night. He reeked of champagne and a woman’s perfume that clung to his lab coat. “Sasha, how are you feeling?” I looked at him, my voice a dry whisper. “Danny, when can I have the drug?” He frowned. “Vivian says the survival rate for you right now is only thirty percent. It’s too risky.” “What was the survival rate for Mr. Harrison’s daughter last month?” Danny paused. “She was only stage three. You’re terminal. It’s different.” “She also donated three million dollars to your research fund,” I countered, my eyes locked on his. “Is that the difference you’re talking about?” His face darkened. “Sasha, how can you think of me like that?” he said, his voice laced with hurt. “The only reason I developed this drug was for you.” I looked at his self-righteous expression and a bitter laugh escaped my lips. “Danny, do you remember how I got sick in the first place?” Ten years ago, an explosion rocked his lab. It was me who ran into that fire, who dragged him out through the smoke and chemical fumes. The diagnosis was written in stark, unforgiving letters: Acute chemical lung injury. Irreversible pulmonary fibrosis. He’d knelt by my bed, his voice thick with unshed tears, and swore, “Sasha, I promise you. I will cure you.” He opened his mouth to speak, but his phone buzzed. It was Vivian. “Professor, the lights in the lab went out. I’m a little scared… can you come over?” Her voice was a saccharine whine, laced with a tremor of fake fear. Danny shot to his feet. “Don’t be scared, I’m on my way.” I grabbed the corner of his coat. “Danny, we’re not finished talking…” “We’ll talk later. Vivian’s all alone, I can’t leave her like that.” He pulled his coat from my grasp and walked out without a second glance. After he left, I had my caregiver look into the story of the rich businessman’s daughter. Just as I suspected. She was being treated with Danny’s new drug. Three months in, her condition had stabilized. She was already living a normal life. Meanwhile, I had just received my third terminal diagnosis notice. The next day, I dragged my broken body out of bed and secretly made my way to Danny’s lab. Standing outside the door, I heard Vivian’s voice. “Professor, let’s give the new batch of the drug to Chairman Davies’s daughter. He’s willing to add another five million to our funding.” There was a moment of silence, then Danny’s voice, gentle in a way I hadn’t heard in years. “Vivian, I know you’re just trying to help the lab, but…” “But what?” Vivian cut him off, her tone dripping with feigned concern. “Professor, I know I shouldn’t say this, but… is Sasha’s condition really that serious?” “Every time she has a crisis, it’s right when you’re at your busiest. Last time, you were about to give a presentation at an international conference, and she ended up in the ICU. This time, we’re celebrating our success, and she gets another terminal notice… Doesn’t it seem a little too convenient?” She sighed delicately. “Professor, you’ve already sacrificed so much for her. Chairman Davies’s investment is critical for the future of this whole project. You can’t let her… drag you down forever.” Danny was silent for a long, long time. I held my breath, waiting. “You’re right,” he finally said, his voice turning cold. “Maybe… I’ve been too soft on her. Fine. We’ll do as you say. The new batch goes to Miss Davies.” His voice hardened into something unrecognizable. “Besides, Sasha’s condition is probably not as urgent as she makes it out to be.” So that’s what it was. My countless battles on the edge of death were nothing more than a performance in his eyes. I pushed the door open, shattering the cozy scene inside. Vivian gasped and shrank behind Danny, who instinctively moved to shield her with his body. His expression was a mixture of shock and annoyance. “Sasha? What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be out of bed in your condition!” “If I stayed in bed,” I said, my voice raw as I stared him down, “I’d die without ever knowing why, wouldn’t I?” Vivian peeked out from behind him, her eyes darting nervously, though her voice was full of concern. “Sasha, you shouldn’t be walking around! The doctor said you need complete rest.” “Rest?” I sneered. “So I can wait quietly while you give my life-saving medicine away to someone else?” Danny’s face turned to stone. “Sasha! Watch your tone! Vivian is worried about you!” “Worried about me?” I pointed a trembling finger at Vivian. “Worried enough to convince you to give my medicine away? Worried enough to imply I’m faking my illness?” “I didn’t…” Vivian’s eyes immediately filled with tears. She looked at Danny, her voice breaking. “Professor, I was just worried you were pushing yourself too hard…” Seeing her tears, Danny’s voice became glacial. “Sasha, look at yourself. Paranoid. Hysterical. Vivian has been nothing but considerate, and you repay her with these vicious accusations!” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “I’m hysterical? Danny, I’m the one lying in a hospital bed waiting to die! I’m the one who can’t get the medicine!” “That’s enough!” he roared, cutting me off. “Do you really think that if you collapse right here, right now, I’ll drop everything to be by your side like I used to?” He took a step closer, glaring down at me. “Sasha, how long are you going to keep up this act?” I was shaking so hard I could barely stand. “You think… you think my terminal diagnosis is an act?” Vivian gently touched his arm, her voice soft. “Professor, don’t be like this. Sasha is probably just scared…” “She’s not scared, she’s selfish!” Danny snapped, as if a dam had finally broken. “If it weren’t for me, you would have died years ago!” “You should be grateful to be alive, not acting like this!” “Now that we’ve finally had a breakthrough, and Vivian has secured us more funding, all you can think about is yourself!” He wrapped an arm around Vivian’s shoulders, a gesture of both protection and possession. “If Vivian hadn’t been by my side, supporting me, I would have given up long ago! And you? What have you ever given me, besides using your illness to hold me hostage?” I stared at them, two strangers standing where the man I loved and his student used to be. Where was the boy who held my hand ten years ago and promised he would save me? How did he become this monster, accusing me of emotional blackmail? Using the last of my strength, I whispered, “Danny… do you just wish I was dead?” His brow furrowed in irritation. “There you go again! Always the same old drama! Go back to the hospital and rest. Don’t stand here interrupting our work.” Without another look at me, he turned his full attention to Vivian, his voice softening. “What happened to your hand? Did you bump it just now? Let me see.” That gentle tone… I hadn’t heard it directed at me in a decade. I turned and walked away, the tears finally falling. The emotional turmoil sent my body into another crisis that night. My breathing grew ragged, my oxygen levels plummeted, and they nearly had to put me on a ventilator. Martha, the head nurse who had looked after me for years, administered the emergency medication, her own eyes red as she patted my back. “Sasha, honey, just hang on a little longer. You have to pull through! Professor Blackwood succeeded, didn’t he? I saw it on the news yesterday, they called his new drug a miracle…” Her voice choked with emotion. “I still remember when you first got sick. The professor doted on you so much, staying by your bedside all night, holding your hand and telling you not to be afraid, that he would save you… He’s finally done it. Your suffering is almost over.” I listened to her words, a bitter smile twisting my lips. Once I was stable, Martha left to get me some water, leaving me alone in the sterile quiet of the room. That’s when Vivian appeared in the doorway. She held a sleek, expensive-looking medicine box, her smile as bright and blinding as a scalpel. “Sasha, look what I brought you! It’s the professor’s new drug!” She dangled the box in front of my face for a moment before snatching it back. “But… this stuff is incredibly expensive. Half a million dollars a dose. And you, Sasha… you’re already behind on your hospital bills. I’m afraid you can’t afford it.” I took a sharp breath. “My parents’ medical trust fund…” “The ten million dollars?” Vivian laughed. “Oh, Sasha. You really don't know, do you?” She walked to my bedside, looking down at me. “That money? Danny spent it all years ago.” “You’re lying!” I struggled to sit up. “Am I?” Vivian pulled out her phone and tossed a picture onto my blanket. It was a financial statement, detailing every source of income and every expense. “He used your parents’ money to build his lab, to buy a penthouse overlooking the river, to lease a luxury car.” “And…” She smiled, pointing to one column. “The living expenses he transferred to me. It adds up to over a million these past few years.” A chill spread through my body. My fingers trembled as I stared at the report. The section for my own medical expenses was pitifully small. “Do you know why your illness never got better over the past ten years? Why it only got worse?” Vivian leaned in close, her voice a venomous whisper. “Because what the professor was giving you… it wasn't medicine.” “It was the control group’s placebo.” “Just… ordinary vitamin pills.” My mind went blank. A roaring filled my ears. “Oh, Sasha. You thought you were his fiancée?” Vivian’s voice seemed to come from a great distance. “You were just his experiment. His living, breathing control group.” “To prove his new drug worked, he needed a baseline like you—someone receiving no real treatment, whose illness could progress naturally. Only then could he show how effective his miracle cure truly was.” “These ten years… you thought he was trying to save you?” “He was watching you die, Sasha. Slowly. And taking notes.” “And the money your parents left to save your life? He used it all to build his own glorious career.” My mouth was open, but no sound came out. The numbers on the monitor beside me began to flash erratically.
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