"If you truly are... then why don’t you kill yourself?"
Lawrence’s entire body shook as he watched the soft smile on his daughter’s face — a smile far too gentle for soone who had just wished him dead. lissa shrugged, turned around, and closed the door behind her, leaving her father with nothing but her cruel words echoing in his mind.
His complexion paled as his shoulders sagged, his eyes swirling with regret and guilt. His heart clenched painfully. Nothing was more devastating for a parent than hearing their own child wish they were gone.
"I shouldn’t have woken up," he whispered to himself, clutching his tightening chest. "It’s all my fault."
Had he not done what he had done... had he not allowed Jasmine to manipulate him... had he not let jealousy over Loren and Doctor Tyler’s friendship fester inside him... none of this would have happened. Loren wouldn’t have taken such extre asures. lissa wouldn’t have been raised by a monster.
Because clearly, the daughter Jasmine and he raised had grown into one.
lissa had been nurtured out of spite — adult spite. The affection they fed her was not love, but bitterness toward Loren, greed disguised as care. What should have been unconditional parental love was replaced by ambition wearing the mask of parenthood.
Lawrence pressed his lips into a thin line before slowly tilting his head back, staring blankly at the ceiling. His gaze drifted to the window, and he swallowed hard.
"Maybe..." he murmured. "Maybe she is right."
Perhaps if he died, lissa’s burden would finally be lifted. After all, what was the point of recovering? Once treatnt was finished and he was discharged, he had nowhere to go. With his condition, he would only burden lissa and beco another mouth to feed.
*****
anwhile, as lissa closed the door behind her, her eyes dropped. The corners of her mouth curved upward as she chuckled to herself like a madwoman. She shook her head, running her fingers through the strands of hair sticking out of her bun.
"Goodness," she breathed out, scoffing as she glanced back at the door. "I am losing my mind."
If not yet, then she was dangerously close.
She didn’t truly an what she said to Lawrence because, at the end of the day, he was still her father. The man who had been in the sa sinking boat as her. Soone she actually wanted to get better.
However, the ntal strain of caring for him, the mockery of the world, and how far she had fallen from grace were slowly chipping away at her sanity. And on days like this, she couldn’t help but wonder...
What if Lawrence died?
What if she didn’t have to co back to this hospital and could finally think only of herself?
What if this heavy baggage vanished overnight?
In its own twisted way, the thought was liberating.
It felt as if life would be easier. Even though deep down, she knew nothing would truly change whether Lawrence lived or died. She simply preferred imagining a world without him because at least it felt lighter.
lissa dragged her feet down the hospital corridor and walked straight outside. She should sleep and rest before her first shift at the convenience store, but she couldn’t. As she stepped out into the night and wandered aimlessly along the sidewalk, her steps halted when she noticed an electronic ad on a nearby building.
Slowly, she lifted her eyes.
It was a comrcial she was supposed to film before everything fell apart. They had replaced her.
"That bitch..." she breathed, glaring at Pixie, who had taken the project. "They used to lick my boots, and now... they’ve stolen all my projects."
If Manager Kang were here, he would have slapped her and told her the truth — that most of these projects were originally offered to Pixie anyway, and so to gan. But because they were in the sa agency, and because lissa was set to marry Derek, Manager Kang listened to lissa’s every whim for his own benefit.
Pixie and gan didn’t steal anything. In fact, because of lissa, Manager Kang had no choice but to suck up to Simon’s temper and gan and Pixie’s contract issues, since the duo had been planning to transfer to Cedrick’s agency.
But that wasn’t how lissa saw reality.
For her, everything was everyone else’s fault — Jasmine’s, Lawrence’s, Lola’s, Manager Kang’s. The whole world had wronged her. And she? She was nothing but a victim.
"Tch." She clicked her tongue and tore her eyes away from the ad, continuing her steps to the bus stop.
She had no idea where she was going, but anywhere was better than here. She sat at the bus stop, waiting. But even when the bus arrived, she didn’t board. She stayed seated in the corner, eyes cast downward, her mind a maze of fragnted thoughts she couldn’t even make sense of.
"How much?"
A voice snapped her out of her spiral. She raised her head slowly, her gaze landing on a man seated at the opposite end of the bus stop. He was reading a newspaper.
Her eyes drifted to the back of it — a photo of herself was plastered on the front, used shalessly to boost clicks. Her na and face were everywhere, tied to Jasmine’s cris. Clickbait gold.
"How much are you worth?" the man repeated, peeling his gaze away from the newspaper. His lips curled into a smirk, his eyes glinting with sothing dangerous. "You don’t seem surprised — good! That ans it’s not the first ti soone asked you that."
His smirk widened. "And I assu it’s not the first ti soone told you selling your body is the only thing that could save you. The only thing that could bring back the life you were used to."
"If you’re interested..." He folded the newspaper and stood up. He walked toward her, slipping a hand into his pocket before presenting a calling card between his fingers.
"No one will know," he said. "Better than your ex-managers’ offer."
lissa frowned. "Huh?"
How did he know that?
But the man only chuckled and dropped the card onto her lap. "Don’t worry. It’s not what you think it is. But I can assure you it’s better than your forr manager’s offer... or that thing in the convenience store."
A black car pulled up beside the bus stop. The man entered the back seat, and the car sped off without another glance.
lissa stared after it, then looked down at her lap where the calling card remained. She picked it up — it displayed a number with no na. When she flipped it over, all she saw was a single letter:
[V]
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