Chapter 3

The mention of “two lives” made me realize that Blair, my super fertile wife, was pregnant again. I froze on the spot.

Seeing me still unmoving, Jax panicked.

He grabbed my head, forcing me to look him in the eye, then leaned in and threatened:

“If either of us reports you to the hospital, your career, your entire life, will be ruined!”

With that, he tied me up, then proceeded to plunge ninety-nine silver needles into my veins, his voice chillingly calm:

“The needles will travel through your bloodstream to your heart, slowly causing a myocardial infarction until you die.”

“You and I are tied together now, whether you like it or not. If I don’t live, you won’t either.”

A fierce repulsion surged through my body, and I writhed on the floor in pain.

My wife stood by, completely detached, as if it had nothing to do with her. She slowly said:

“This useless guy’s been working like a dog for fifteen years, and he’s still just a junior doctor. What good is he?”

“Expecting him to steal medicine from the hospital? You’d have better luck waiting for him to die first and pave the way for us to hell.”

Hearing that, Jax spat a glob of thick phlegm at me, where I lay on the floor:

“Maybe the old him wouldn’t have, but those silver needles are covered in both our infected blood…”

“Even if he doesn’t want to save us, he’ll have to for his paralyzed brother’s funeral. He’s selfish enough to save himself.”

Listening to them shamelessly discuss my brother right in front of me again, I couldn’t take it anymore:

“Don’t you dare slander my brother! Even if I die, I’ll drag you both down with me to pay for what you did to him!”

I pushed through the pain in my body and stood up, feeling the silver needles twitching wildly in my veins.

Seeing my defiance, Jax grabbed Leo’s corpse with one hand, waving it in front of me, and sneered:

“Do you still think you’re the renowned Dr. Asher from back then?”

“The moment you chose to marry her, sacrificing your brother’s legs, you lost the right to wield a scalpel.”

His taunt made my eyes widen, and I turned to glare at my wife, my gaze burning with fury:

“Blair! I told you my secret because I valued our marriage, and you truly want to destroy me?!”

Her eyes were filled with mockery, not a hint of apology as she spoke:

“You’re just too stupid. That secret you’ve hidden for so long? I already broadcasted it to everyone. Your parents, your colleagues, they all know what a rotten person you are!”

“Ten years ago, you watched your brother become crippled. Ten years later, you’ll watch your wife become a death that takes two lives! Asher, once these things happen, you’ll never wash away your sins!”

Jax, meanwhile, continued to cruelly manipulate Leo’s lifeless body. The video call he dialed on his phone tore away my last layer of pretense.

My parents’ pleading voices came through the phone, mixed with frantic shouts, and I froze solid.

I could only watch, helpless, as they hung my parents on the Pendulum ride at the amusement park, then cranked the speed to maximum.

Seeing me utterly broken, Jax stomped on my face, sneering viciously:

“Asher, surprised, huh? You never thought you’d be this pathetic, this powerless, did you?”

“You abandoned your own brother for fame and fortune, so I guess you wouldn’t care about your parents either, right?”

“You always crushed me before! But now you’re so desperate, worse than a stray dog, a useless piece of trash who can’t even protect his own parents! Hilarious, hahahaha!”

I realized that she and Jax were deliberately trying to trigger my deepest pain, but at that moment, I felt utterly powerless.

After all, the woman who once promised to be my one and only, for life, had changed long, long ago.