Instinctively, I turned off my phone and looked at him calmly.
"Nothing. Just a friend."
Emmett frowned, clearly wanting to ask more. But at that moment, Leanne's cry of pain came from behind him, and his expression instantly changed.
"Camille, why did you push Leanne?" he demanded. "Do you know she was almost hit by a car?"
On hearing his words, my chest tightened as if I couldn't breathe.
After a moment, I took a deep breath and intoned coldly. "Believe it or not, I didn't push Leanne. If I had, why is it me lying here after the accident?"
The mockery on my face was unmistakable.
Emmett's gaze fell on the wounds covering my body, and a trace of concern flashed across his face.
He reached out, as if wanting to touch my cheek.
"Camille, you've loved lying ever since you were a child. If Emmett hadn't pushed you away back then, the one in the accident would have been Leanne!"
Jace's sharp voice cut in from the doorway.
He strode over and yanked Emmett aside, then looked at me sharply.
"Emmett, Camille has always been good at playing the victim. Don't be fooled by her. Leanne is already ill, and she's still competing for attention like this—so immature. Leanne would never lie. It must have been Camille who pushed her."
He looked at me with undisguised disgust. With just a few words, he sentenced me to guilt.
Leanne had been gone for seven years, and for those seven years, Jace had treated me kindly.
It made me believe that I had finally become the sister he liked.
But a single car accident stripped everything away and returned me to reality.
My brothers had never truly liked me. Neither had Emmett.
The nurse standing nearby couldn't hold back her anger.
"Are you Ms. Mcallister family? How can you treat her like this?"
"She was the most seriously injured in this accident—and she just suffered a miscarriage..."
Before she could finish, Antonio rushed in, panic written all over his face.
"Emmett! Jace! Come back quickly—Leanne's illness has flared up. She fainted!"
Emmett reflexively glanced back at me.
Jace grabbed his wrist.
"There's no need to care about Camille. She brought this accident upon herself."
Antonio shoved the two of them toward the door, then turned back to look at me with open scorn.
"Camille, you tried to get Leanne into a car accident so Emmett would stay devoted to you. I never knew you were this vicious. If anything happens to Leanne, I will never let you off."
I lay stiffly on the hospital bed, enduring pain multiplied by the cruelty of both family and the man I loved, until their figures disappeared from sight.
...
From that day on, until I was discharged from the hospital, Emmett and my brothers never appeared again.
It was as if they had completely forgotten my existence.
Yet the moment I opened my phone, I could see their radiant smiles.
While I struggled alone in pain at the hospital, they took Leanne on a trip.
The photos were taken in the Maldives—a place I had always wanted to visit. Golden sunlight bathed their faces, making their smiles dazzlingly bright.
The caption read: [Seven years later, our family is finally reunited. May our little sister stay with us forever.]
I tried my best to hold back my tears—but they still streamed down my face.
Whether it was family or love, I was never the one who was chosen.
