Make Them Regret It Chapter 16
The doctor said there was only one way: a high-risk fusion surgery.
It was the most aggressive method possible to implant the Core back into my body. The chance of success was less than fifty percent, and it would cost me years of my life.
“Think carefully,” the doctor warned. “This is extremely dangerous.”
I thought of that night in the chapel. Of Gia’s little hands growing colder and colder in mine.
They no longer had a tomorrow.
“I’ve made my decision.”
That night, the surgery was performed in my room.
It hurt. Even more than when the Core had been cut out.
As it reconnected with my nerves, one by one, it felt like countless red-hot needles were being driven into every inch of my body.
I bit down on a strip of cloth, shredding it, then another.
When the pain was at its worst, I was dragged back to that first night. My older brother pinning my shoulders, my second brother holding my legs, my father’s scalpel glinting under the light.
That time, no one asked if I was in pain.
This time, no one was by my side.
But this time, it was my choice.
Just before dawn, I finally heard the doctor’s exhausted voice.
“The fusion has stabilized.”
My Core was back.
I lifted a hand and made a slight beckoning gesture toward the dagger in the cabinet across the room.
The blade trembled, then flew into my palm.
In the morning light, its edge gleamed faintly, as if it recognized its true owner.
I held the dagger and sat by the window, watching the sky slowly brighten.
I had paid a terrible price to take back the power that was mine.
It was worth it.
But I knew this wasn’t over.
Isabella, her abilities gone, had been carried back to her room.
The family council’s final sentence wouldn’t arrive for another three days.
And in those three days, I had somewhere else I needed to send her first.