I Gave Up Treatment Not Them Chapter 05
The air suddenly went dead silent.
Everyone froze.
Dad, however, instinctively shot back, “What death certificate? What are you talking about?”
“Are you an actor she hired? Is she cursing herself like this just to trick us into going back?”
I don’t know why, but ever since my heart stopped beating that day, I had become a wandering spirit.
And suddenly, I appeared right beside them.
The police officer on the other end was baffled. “What are you saying? Who would joke about something like this? Are you Sarah’s family?”
Before he could finish, Dad hung up the phone in a flurry of panic.
Mom asked with a trembling voice, “Did he just say Sarah passed away? What on earth is going on?”
Dad kept denying it. “It has to be fake. How could she suddenly die? She must be lying to us, trying to make us rush back.”
How laughable.
Even in death, they refused to believe me.
Jacob stood up hesitantly. “She hasn’t replied to any of the messages I sent her. Even if she really is pranking us, we need to fly back and check on her now.”
Mom immediately echoed, “Right, we’re going back right now.”
Julian said nothing, following silently behind them.
Just then, Victoria came downstairs.
She didn’t seem to notice anything wrong; instead, she excitedly linked her arm through Dad’s and whined playfully, “Are you guys going to buy me that necklace? If you hadn’t run out of cash yesterday, I could be wearing it today.”
Since they had used up all their foreign currency over the past few days, they hadn’t been able to buy the necklace Victoria liked when they went out yesterday.
So, they had promised to buy it for her today without fail.
For once, Dad didn’t indulge her. “We have an emergency and need to return home. We’ll talk about the necklace later.”
Victoria froze. “Why? You promised me yesterday.”
Jacob couldn’t help but yell at her, “You can buy a necklace anytime! Something happened to Sarah. We need to go back and see her.”
He hadn’t intended to snap at Victoria, but thinking about what was said on the phone, he felt increasingly irritable and uneasy.
Victoria looked at Julian with a grievance, hoping he would speak up for her.
But unexpectedly, Julian just offered a casual comfort, “It’s just a necklace, isn’t it? Let’s go back first.”
“If you want to go back, you can come with us. Otherwise, you can stay here by yourself.”
Paying Victoria no further mind, they left without looking back.
Victoria gritted her teeth, her eyes filled with resentment. “It’s Sarah again! She’s dead, yet she still wants to compete with me…”
My spirit trembled. I never expected that she actually knew I was already dead.
How did she know?
Before I could figure it out, I was pulled along behind my parents.
Victoria followed them back to the country as well.
The aircraft landed directly on the hospital’s rooftop. The whole family rushed out impatiently.
Julian followed close behind.
Victoria kept calling out to them from the back, but they pretended not to hear.
I watched as they ran toward the ward I had once occupied. But it had long since been cleared out; there wasn’t a single trace of me left.
Mom stumbled, her steps unsteady. “Where is Sarah? Where did she go?”
Dad looked flustered. “She must have been moved to another ward. I’ll go to check right now.”
He had just stepped out of the room when he bumped into a nurse wheeling a patient in.
Seeing so many people inside, the nurse assumed they were the new patient’s family.
“Are you his family? The surgery went well. He…”
Jacob cut her off immediately. “We’re Sarah’s family. Wasn’t she staying in this room? Where is she?”
The nurse gave them a puzzled look.
“Didn’t Sarah get discharged a month ago? She gave up on treatment. You’re her family — didn’t you know?”