Chapter 4

A few days later, Damien’s parents were away attending an elite charity gala in the city.

Only Damien, myself, and a rotating night nurse were left in the private ward.

I stepped out to the breakroom to fetch a cup of hot water. On my way back, I noticed the nurse's station was completely empty.

Further down the hall, a suspicious figure in a beige trench coat was quietly slipping into Damien’s room.

Lydia.

I quietly stepped back into the shadows of the breakroom, pulled out my phone, and opened a live video feed.

I had noticed days ago that the rotating nurse was constantly snooping around my belongings whenever my back was turned. So, I had secretly bought a pinhole camera online and hidden it inside the wall outlet right next to the nightstand.

On my phone screen, Lydia frantically unzipped my backpack, pulling out my clothes and shaking them out one by one.

She muttered under her breath, her face twisted in frustration.

"Where did she hide it? That little wretch definitely has it..."

She tore through my belongings for ten straight minutes, finding nothing.

I recorded the entire sequence, saved the file to a secure cloud drive, and casually walked back into the room holding my cup of water.

Lydia was already gone. The nurse was casually smoothing the bedsheets as if nothing had happened.

I said nothing.

The next afternoon, Chloe showed up.

She wasn't alone. Clinging to her waist was her trust-fund boyfriend, Chad Miller, who strutted in wearing designer sunglasses and a smug grin.

Chloe marched into the room, her red-soled stilettos clicking loudly against the tile floor.

"Hey, sister! Thought I'd drop by to see how miserable you are!"

Without hesitation, she whipped out her phone and snapped a photo of Damien lying lifeless on the bed.

I lunged forward to block her lens. "What do you think you're doing?"

Chloe had already hit 'post' on her Instagram story, captioning the picture: *My poor sister ended up with a vegetable. Thank God I have my prince.*

She shoved her phone in my face, beaming with pride. "Look at that, Nora. Over fifty likes in two minutes."

I pushed her hand away. "You're violating his privacy. Delete it."

Chloe rolled her eyes, sitting down on the edge of the sofa and crossing her legs.

"What privacy? Everyone in our social circle already knows he's braindead. You should be thanking the heavens you even got inside a Sterling property. Did you really think you were a high-society lady?"

Chad let out an arrogant laugh. "Seriously, babe. She should just be grateful they let a charity case like her sleep in the same room."

I stared at Chloe with absolute ice in my eyes.

"When you posted that, did you stop to think about what the Sterling family would do to you when they see it?"

Chloe sneered. "I didn't lie, did I?"

Refusing to waste another breath on trash, I walked over to the door and pulled it wide open.

"Get out."

Chloe stood up, brushing off her designer skirt.

"Whatever. We're leaving anyway. It stinks of decay in here. Have fun rotting away with your living corpse."

As she strutted out the door, she cast a mocking glance over her shoulder.

I shut the door firmly behind them and walked over to Damien’s bedside.

The heart monitor was steady.

Yet, as I looked closely at his face, I could have sworn his dark brows had furrowed for a fraction of a second.