In that moment, I started to realize if I had never been more than a shadow in Sylus’s life, a mere substitute for Charlotte, the one he truly loved.
I was never her. I could never be her.
On that icy table, I made my decision. I would leave them to be the happy couple they deserved to be. A pale imitation could never replace the real thing, after all.
But as I left him, Sylus came after me, his eyes burning with a possessiveness that made my heart stutter.
"Who told you that you could leave of your own accord, baby girl?"
***
The incision made by Xavier Fuentez, despite him being an internal organ specialist, made me grit my teeth in unbearable pain.
Even though he had administered anesthesia, it had not worked completely, and the procedure he performed alone, without a nurse or anesthetist, was anything but standard.
The cold, sterile air filled with the sound of surgical instruments clinking as he tore through each layer of my flesh, one after another.
“How dare you, Xavier!” I snapped, tied helplessly to the freezing metal table, forced to endure whatever he decided to do. My voice trembled, not just from pain, but from fear.