Under the glare of the surgical lights, Cassidy Montgomery slowly pried her eyes open. Everything was a blinding, sterile white; she assumed this must be what the afterlife looked like.

Well, at least death meant the end of pain.

Just as she started to drift back into the darkness, a rough, mocking voice pulled her back. "Ms. Montgomery, Ms. Montgomery, don't go back to sleep now."

Cassidy squinted, trying to sharpen the blurry figure standing over her.

"Don't move," the man warned. "You’ve got a needle in your neck."

A needle? Following his prompt, Cassidy realized that beyond the ability to twitch her facial muscles, she couldn't feel the rest of her body at all. She parted her lips to speak, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't force a sound out.

Images of that man’s threats flashed through her mind. Had that madman actually harvested her organs?

Terror seeped from the very depths of her soul. Her intracranial pressure spiked, and just as her vision blurred again, she lost consciousness, her eyes rolling back into her head.

*Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.* The heart rate monitor shrieked a high-tension alarm.

"What the hell?"

Flynn Marshall quickly pried her eyelids open to check her pupils. He pulled a silver needle from his kit and jabbed it into the philtrum acupoint beneath her nose, his eyes darting toward the man sitting lazily on the leather sofa. "Uh, her pupils are dilating."

"Is she dead?"

Flynn pulled a face. "Not yet. She just took one look at me and scared herself unconscious. Am I... really that ugly?"

Romeo Marshall let out a sardonic laugh. "Juliana has cycled through countless men and still doesn't want you. What do you think?"

*Crash!* A medical trolley toppled over, sending instruments clattering across the tile floor.

Flynn, red-faced with rage, grabbed Romeo by the collar. "Are you even a friend?"

"Ease up. I’m just giving you some advice."

"Is that what you call advice? Twisting a knife in my gut?"

Romeo chuckled, peeling Flynn’s hands off his shirt and pulling him down onto the sofa. "If you don't have a heart, you can’t be wounded. You should learn from me."

"Get off me! I’m done talking to you!" Flynn shoved his hand away and stormed out, fuming.

Romeo watched him go, amused by his prickly demeanor. "Hah. Such a temper."

People are strange creatures, he mused. They obsess over things they want but can't have. After a while, they probably can't even tell the difference between true desire and mere bitterness.

—

Jonah Harrison understood all too well just how paranoid Cassidy was. Ever since she was released from the detention center, she had been the one driving Jonah-Evie to and from school.

A seed of suspicion had taken root in young Jonah-Evie’s heart.

As they neared the school, the boy could no longer suppress his curiosity. "Dad... is she coming back?"

His voice was cold, too mature for a child his age. Jonah felt a sharp pang of guilt looking at the boy’s cherubic face.

"Do you want a mother?" Jonah asked.

"That depends on whether you actually want me, Dad."

"Jonah-Evie..."

"So, the fact that you’ve been nice to me these last two days... does that mean you’ve finally decided to get rid of me?"

A five-year-old child, yet he spoke with such chilling detachment. Jonah knew the reason why. A child raised in an environment of cold, silent treatment would never grow up with a bright, sunny disposition. It was his failure as a father.

Jonah’s expression crumbled into shame. "Do you hate me?"

"Don't I have every reason to?"

Young Jonah-Evie lifted his chin, his face a mask of stubborn defiance, holding back tears that refused to stay put. But tears are traitorous things—they only know that the eyes can no longer contain them.

For these past five years, Jonah and his son had lived under the same roof like strangers. As the boy grew older, he had stopped reaching out for a hug that never came. He had stopped expecting his father to answer.

"Jonah-Evie, I... I can't forgive myself, that's all. It doesn't mean I hate you."

The car pulled to a smooth stop at the kindergarten gates. Jonah-Evie climbed out, and as the car door slammed shut, he murmured under his breath, "That’s the first time you’ve ever called yourself 'Dad' in front of me."

Jonah watched that small, rigid back disappear into the school. His heart twisted in his chest. He was drowning in self-reproach, yet he couldn't bridge the gap in his own heart. He simply didn't know what to do with this child.

As he prepared to drive away, a graceful figure caught his eye. He rolled down the window.

"Evangeline."

"Jonah? You’re here to drop the kid off?"

"Yes."

"I see. See you."

The exchange was brief and flat, as if they were nothing more than mere acquaintances. Jonah lingered, his gaze fixed on Evangeline Montgomery as she walked away, suddenly realizing he had failed everyone in his life.