Yuri's POV
The copper taste of blood was heavy in my mouth, leaking from my split nose where Angelo's fist had broken across my face. I didn't wipe it off. I let it drip down my chin, staining the collar of my shirt, because the physical pain was the only anchor keeping me from losing my mind entirely.
It was a physical manifestation of the absolute ruin I had brought upon the people I was supposed to love. Every throb in my face felt like a well-deserved strike against my pathetic, selfish soul.
I leaned my upper back against the cold, unfeeling hospital wall, my eyes locked on the floor, yet my peripheral vision was violently focused on Jane.
She was sitting a few yards away, her head buried in her hands, her shoulders shaking with agonizing, breathless sobs. Every single gasp for air she took felt like a physical hand squeezing my throat, cutting off my own oxygen.
I did this to her, the voice in my head chanted, a rhythmic, torturous loop. I did this. I broke her.
I had known the stakes of this game. I wasn't stupid. I knew that playing with people's real emotions, using two innocent, fiercely loyal girls just to get back at Aries for a petty grudge, was a highly dangerous, disgusting game.
But I had let my stupid pride, my toxic anger, and Section E's collective, blind loyalty had blinded me to the basic humanity of the girl who had given me her trust.
Jane had looked at me with so much genuine affection, ignoring Jay's warnings, choosing to believe that beneath my reckless, arrogant exterior, there was someone worth loving.
And I had used that love as a weapon.. And now, the real-world consequences of our fun little game were right here, painted vividly in the bright red blood on Jay's clothes and the endless tears streaming down Jane's face.
I hated seeing Jane cry more than anything else in the entire world. Every single broken sob that left her throat felt like a physical knife turning slowly in my gut, carving away at my humanity.
I wanted so badly, with every fiber of my being, to walk over to her, to throw my arms around her, to wipe her tears away with my thumbs, and tell her that I would gladly die if it meant fixing this nightmare for her.But I couldn't move a single inch.
I didn't have the right to comfort her. I was the perpetrator. If I stepped anywhere near her right now, she wouldn't see a source of comfort; she would see the monster who had helped drive her sister into the path of an oncoming car. She would get more angry, and her anger would only hurt her fragile state even more.
I had to stay back in the shadows, a silent, hated spectator to the tragedy I had helped write with my own hands.
The emotional temperature of the room shifted from despair to pure fire when a woman's sharp voice pierced the hallway.
Jeana Fernandes.
The biological mother who had abandoned them twelve years ago.I watched the interaction with a sick feeling in my stomach. The moment Jeana tried to lay her manicured hands on Jane's shoulders, the reaction from Jane was instantaneous and violent.
She didn't just push her away; she recoiled as if she had been touched by a poisonous reptile. The absolute, unadulterated hatred that flashed in Jane's eyes—and the raw, venomous screaming that followed—was a revelation that shook me to my core.
Seeing the depth of that hatred, the bone-deep resentment for the woman who had left them to rot, made me realize just how fragile their world truly was.
They had spent their entire lives protecting each other from the trauma of that abandonment. Their bond wasn't just twin sisterhood; it was a survival pact. And we, Section E, had infiltrated that pact and ripped it apart from the inside out.
We had become just like the mother they loathed—people who entered their lives, made them feel safe, and then abandoned them to the wolves.
Then here was the sudden appearance of Percy.
My jaw dropped, my breath hitching in my throat as I stared at our old best friend. He was alive. The guy we had mourned, the brother figure whose ghost had haunted our group for a long time, was standing there, real and solid.
For a fraction of a second, a spark of pure shock went through me, but it was immediately extinguished by the medical truth that followed his arrival.
Seeing him stand there right now—alive, breathing, talking, and completely real—felt like a terrifying glitch in reality itself.But the biggest, most devastating shock came right after his arrival.
Cardiovascular Disease. Two years. Heavily medicated.
The medical information hit me like a physical punch straight to the pit of my stomach, knocking the remaining air out of my lungs.
Jay was my best friend. She was the fiercely loyal girl who used to sit with me for hours, giving me heartfelt advice on how to impress Jane, helping me figure out what made her twin smile. She was the one who would sit on the benches with me, making fun of my terrible fashion choices, laughing so hard her cheeks would turn bright pink.
She was always so incredibly full of life, stubborn, so fiercely prottective and foddie.
How could she have been fighting a fatal heart disease for two long years completely by herself? Why didn't she ever tell anyone ?Why didn't she trust us enough to share that burden?
As I stared blankly at the closed, unfeeling operating room doors, the horrific reality of what Section E had done finally settled heavily on my shoulders. We hadn't just broken a girl's heart for a bet. We had pushed a fragile, deeply sick girl right to the absolute edge of a physical cliff, and then we had stood by and watched her fall.
The guilt was a heavy, choking smoke in my throat, and for the first time in my life, I truly didn't know how I was going to survive it
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Keifer POV
The exact moment the news reached me that Jay had been hit by a car, my entire world flipped completely upside down, plunging me into a dark, freezing abyss.
The air had vanished from my lungs instantly. The ground felt like it was tilting and crumbling beneath my sneakers. I didn't even remember the panicked drive to the hospital. I didn't remember walking through the front double doors.
All my brain could process was one single, terrifying realization: I had to get to her. I had to see if she was breathing.
The world around me had lost all its color, reduced to a stark, blinding, sterile white that made my eyes burn. My jaw was throbbing intensely from the force of Angelo's punch, the metallic taste of blood pooling under my tongue, but I welcomed the pain.
I wanted him to hit me again. I wanted Aries to step up and beat me until I couldn't stand up, because any physical agony would be a merciful distraction from the absolute, tearing hell occurring inside my chest.
I kept my back pressed hard against the wall, my broad shoulders shaking as I tried with everything inside me to suppress the ragged, pathetic sobs tearing at my throat. A man like me—a liar, a coward, a boy who had traded the most precious thing in his life for a cheap, prideful bet—didn't deserve the comfort of tears.
I felt a deep, sickening wave of intense self-loathing wash over me, a shame so profound it made me want to tear my own skin off.
I looked across the hallway at Jane, who was rocking back and forth in her chair, her cries echoing off the concrete walls like a physical manifestation of my sins. Every single sob she uttered felt like a knife cutting directly into my soul.
I did this to them, I thought, my knuckles whitening as I clenched my fists inside my jacket pockets. I drove her into that street. I am the reason she is lying on a metal table with her chest cut open.
Just hours ago, I had held Jay in my arms. I had kissed her, tasted the sweetness of her lips, and confessed my love to her. And the terrifying, beautiful truth was that my feelings had become entirely real.
Somewhere along the line, the fake smiles and the calculated charm had melted away, leaving me completely, desperately in love with her stubbornness, her fierce loyalty, and her bright, protective spirit. But when she had confronted me, when she told me she already knew about the bet just to protect her pride, I had seen the absolute devastation hiding behind her eyes.
I had felt her heart breaking right in front of me, and instead of begging for her forgiveness, instead of fixing it, I had let my own guilt paralyze me. I had let her walk out into the dark night alone, blind with tears, emotionally shattered by the person she had finally trusted enough to let her guard down.
When her mother, Jeana, arrived in the hallway, the sudden explosion of raw conflict temporarily broke through my spiral of self-hatred.I watched Jane stand up, her frame trembling but her posture completely hostile as she screamed at the woman who had abandoned them twelve years ago .
The sheer volume of hatred that poured out of Jane's mouth was shocking, but what broke my heart even more was the realization of what that hatred meant for Jay. Jay had carried that same hatred, that same deep, agonizing sense of abandonment, her entire life.
That was why she was so fiercely protective of Jane; that was why she never let anyone in. She had been abandoned by the one person who was supposed to love her unconditionally, and she had built a fortress around her heart to ensure she would never feel that pain again.
And I, the boy who claimed to love her, had scaled those walls, convinced her to tear them down, and then subjected her to the exact same gut-wrenching abandonment all over again. We had validated every single fear she had ever had about the world. We had proven to her that trust was a death sentence.
And then, the ghost appeared. Percy.
I stared at him, my mind completely short-circuiting. He was alive. The best friend we all looked up to, the one whose death had cast a dark shadow over our entire lives, was standing right there, holding Jane, acting as the anchor our group had lost a long time ago.
But the shock of his survival was completely wiped out by the medical revelation that left his lips.Cardiovascular Disease. Two years.
When Cin stepped forward and explained what CVD meant—that her heart muscles were weakened, that her valves were failing, that her body couldn't handle the stress of a major trauma—I felt the last bit of physical strength leave my legs.
A hot, burning tear finally spilled over my eyelid, tracking down my bruised, swelling jaw.I had broken her heart while her physical heart was already failing her.
For two long years, while she was running around the school, fighting for her friends, and standing up to anyone who threatened her sister, her heart had been quietly giving out inside her chest.
Every beautiful, stubborn smile she gave me, every time her breath caught when I held her close—it wasn't just emotion; it was her body struggling to survive. And I had added an unbearable, crushing amount of stress and emotional agony to that fragile system.
I had pushed her to the point where her broken heart literally couldn't pump blood anymore, driving her into the street where a car could finish the job. I wasn't just a liar. I was her executioner.
I slowly dropped my head against the wall, closing my eyes tightly as the darkness pressed in on me. I had never been a religious person. I had never believed in God, fate, or mercy. But right now, facing the terrifying reality of a world where Jay didn't wake up, I found myself dropping my hands and begging the universe.
Please, God, I prayed silently, the words tearing through my mind like a scream. I know I'm a monster. I know I'm a piece of shit who deserves to burn for what I did. Take my life instead. Break my body, ruin my future, throw me into the dark—do whatever the hell you want to me. Just don't take my Jay away. Please. Let her live. Let her heart beat again.
A soft, familiar pair of hands suddenly wrapped around my shaking arm. I opened my eyes through the thick blur of my tears and saw my mother standing beside me, her eyes full of maternal sorrow and pity.
The moment she pulled me into her shoulder, the last remnants of my pride vanished. I collapsed against her, burying my face in her coat, and cried harder than I ever had in my entire life, my body shaking with the terrifying, agonizing realization that my love had become a weapon that had nearly killed the only girl who mattered.
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Angelo POV
The hospital tiles felt like blocks of ice beneath my boots, but the real freezing cold was inside my chest. As the oldest, my only job in this life after our world fractured was to protect my siblings.
I had built a wall around them, or so I thought. But standing in this sterile white hallway, staring at the bright red "Surgery" light, I felt the crushing weight of my own failure.
Jay was in there, her life hanging by a thread, because I hadn't seen the cracks in our foundation. I hadn't stopped the monsters before they reached her.
When Aries finished explaining the plan—the cheap, disgusting game Section E had played with my sisters' hearts—something in me permanently snapped.
The air in my lungs turned to pure, roaring fire. I didn't see classmates or teenagers when I looked at Keifer and Yuri; I saw threats that needed to be eliminated.
When my fist connected with Keifer's jaw, and then Yuri's face, the physical impact didn't satisfy me. It barely scratched the surface of the lethal fury vibrating in my veins.
They had taken Jay's fierce, beautiful light and driven it straight into the path of an oncoming car. If she stopped breathing, a punch would be the least of their worries
.But the violence faded into absolute numbness the moment Jeana Fernandes walked down the hall.
Hearing her screech, "Why is my daughter here?!" made my stomach turn with pure nausea.
Twelve years.
Twelve years of absolute silence, of leaving us to drown in our own tears, and now she was clicking her expensive high heels down the corridor like she had a right to be panicked.
I stepped in front of Jane, my frame shielding her, but Jane didn't even need me.
She pushed Jeana's hands away with a venom that made my heart ache. My sisters didn't just dislike her—they hated her. It was a deep, guttural, bone-deep hatred born from a childhood of abandonment.
Watching Jane scream at her, exposing the raw wounds of Jay for past twelve years, made me realize how much trauma my sister had been carrying while trying to look strong for the rest of us.
And then, the universe shifted on its axis. Percy's voice cut through the air.
I froze, my breath catching so hard it hurt. I turned slowly, convinced my mind had finally snapped under the stress. But there he was.
Percy. The one we had wept for, the one whose empty casket we had buried. He was alive, standing right in front of us, shielding Jane from the woman who gave birth to her.
I couldn't even process the impossibility of his resurrection because the moment he spoke to the doctor, a new nightmare began.
Cardiovascular Disease.
My hands began to shake violently. Jay, my stubborn, loud, protective sister, had a failing heart.
For two years, she had been fighting a secret war inside her own chest, taking heavy medications, probably feeling her heart flutter and skip beats while she smiled and roasted Section E.
And I knew nothing. I was her older brother, and I knew absolutely nothing. As Jane collapsed into the chair, begging God not to take her sister, I dropped my head against the wall, the tears finally burning my eyes.
My shield had failed. I had spent so much time looking out for external dangers that I didn't even realize my sister's own body was trying to kill her from the inside.
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Aries POV
I could still feel the phantom warmth of Jay's blood on my hands. The image of her lying on that dark, wet asphalt, her eyes fluttering open just enough to look at me, was burned into the back of my eyelids.
When she looked at me out there, the anger that had defined me for years just disintegrated.
For a brief, terrifying second, I wasn't the distant, hostile brother who pushed everyone away. I was just Kuya Ari again.
And she had known it. She had felt it right before her eyes went completely blank and her body went limp in my arms.
Now, standing in the hospital, the adrenaline was wearing off, leaving behind a hollow, agonizing dread. I had helped Jane find her, but I had been too late. I was always too late when it mattered most
When Section E showed up, my hands clenched into tight fists at my sides, the skin stretching white over my knuckles. I watched Angelo throw those punches, and for the first time in my life, I didn't want to join the fight.
I just felt a sickening, profound disgust. I looked at Keifer and Yuri, the guys who had used my sister as a punchline for their petty revenge against me.
They wanted to hurt me? Fine. They should have come for me. They should have broken my bones. But they went after the twins.
They went after the only good, pure things left in my miserable life.
The tension in the room exploded further when Jeana arrived. Watching her try to touch Jane made my blood boil
The hatred radiating from Jane—and the ghost of the hatred I knew Jay felt—was thick enough to choke on.
Jeana was a stranger wearing our DNA, a hypocrite who thought a designer purse and a new family could erase twelve years of neglect.
Jane's words cuts through her like a blade, and I felt a dark sense of satisfaction watching Jeana's pride crumble. She didn't deserve to breathe the same sterile air as my sisters.
Then, the world shattered completely. Percy stepped out of the shadows.
My brain completely refused to accept the data my eyes were sending it. Percy was dead. I had carried the guilt of his absence like a lead weight in my stomach for a long time. Yet, there he was, holding Jane, looking at us with the same steady, protective eyes he always had.
I took a step toward him, my voice trapped in my throat, but the medical revelation dropped like a bomb, scattering my thoughts to the wind.
CVD. Chronic heart failure.
I looked at the operating room doors, my vision blurring with sudden, hot tears. Jay had a broken heart—not just emotionally because of Keifer's disgusting betrayal, but physically. Her heart was structurally weak.
It was failing under the trauma of the car crash. Every time I had yelled at her, every time I had pushed her away or told her to stay out of my business over the last two years, her heart had been struggling to pump blood through her veins.
The guilt was suffocating. I had been so busy being angry at the world that I hadn't noticed my little sister was quietly dying right in front of me.
I let go of Jane's chair, leaning against the wall, my chest heaving as I watched the red surgery light, silently begging my dead—now living—brother to tell me this was all just a horrific nightmare.
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