"You've been draining my heart's blood every month just to keep her alive?"
I stood in the entryway.
Norman Stephens's briefcase was still in my hand, the one he'd left by the door that morning.
The strap bit into my palm.
It didn't hurt much.
On the sofa, the woman went still.
She held a mouthful of medicine, a smear of crimson at the corner of her lips.
I knew that smell.
It was mine.
Norman's hand jerked hard.
The white porcelain bowl knocked against the woman's teeth with a bright little clink.
He turned his head.
The instant he saw me, his face went white as paper.
"Jill Finley."
He stood up on instinct, putting himself between me and the woman.
The stance of a man shielding what he'd protect at any cost.
I looked at the face that was exactly like mine.
...
Corinne Finley, who had fallen into the snake pit ten years ago.
My twin sister.
She wasn't dead.
Not only alive—kept, pampered, in this multimillion-dollar villa by my own husband.
Living off my life to hold on to hers.
"Jill, let me explain."
Norman took a step forward.
Then stopped.
As if he feared that the moment he moved away, I'd lunge past him and strangle the woman behind him.
I dropped the briefcase on the floor.
A dull, soft thud.
"Explain what."
I looked at him.
"Explain why you lied and told me it was to suppress the love hex?"
"Or explain how many years you've been keeping her?"
His throat bobbed.
Before he could speak, Corinne coughed softly on the sofa.
The sound was faint.
Like porcelain that would shatter at a touch.
"Jill."
She said my name.
With a kind of weakness that still looked down on me.
"Don't blame Norman."
"My body's just too frail. I can't take the cold up here in the north."
"He only did it to save us both, sister."
I looked at her.
Save.
Use my heart's blood to save her.
"Shut your mouth."
My voice was level.
Nothing rose or fell in it.
Corinne's eyes went red at once.
She flinched, shrinking back into the corner of the sofa.
"I'm sorry."
"I know you hate that I didn't hold on to you back then."
"But I really didn't mean for it to happen."
Norman's face darkened in an instant.
He turned and patted Corinne's shoulder, soothing her.
When he looked back at me, there was blame in his eyes.
"Jill, that's enough."
"Corinne is your own sister."
"Back in the highlands, if she hadn't drawn those snakes away from you, you'd be the one who died."
I stared at Norman.
It was absurd.
Ten years ago, it was Corinne who pushed me toward the snake pit to steal the sacred heir title.
I climbed out on my own.
And she was the one whose foot slipped and sent her down.
Now, in Norman's mouth, it had become her shielding me from disaster.
"Is that what she told you?"
I asked Norman.
"It's the truth."
Norman frowned.
"Corinne's constitution was ruined in that pit. She took a cold venom into her."
"There's a spirit of the Golden Silkworm hex in your heart's blood. You're the only one who can save her."
"I'm your husband. I won't stand by and let you carry the name of an ingrate."
He said it with such righteous conviction.
As if draining my blood was atoning for my sins.
I pushed up my left sleeve.
There was a red thread of blood across my wrist.
The mark of the love hex.
"Norman, I'm the one carrying the love hex."
"My heart's blood is my one fatal weakness."
"You've drawn it once a month. For three years."
"Do you have any idea how many months I have left to live?"
Norman's eyes flickered away.
They quickly hardened back into that same matter-of-fact coldness.
"The doctor already said it."
"Your blood regenerates fine. You won't die."
"Corinne's different. Cut off her supply and she's gone."
Behind him, Corinne gave a light tug at the hem of his shirt.
"Norman, let it go."
"If my sister doesn't want to, I'd rather just die."
"Give her back her life."
As she spoke, the tears fell in fat drops.
Norman grabbed her hand and gripped it in his.
"Don't talk nonsense."
"As long as I'm here, no one gets to let you die."
He turned his head and fixed his eyes on me.
Looking at me like I was a stranger throwing an unreasonable fit.
"Jill, stop this. She's your own sister. Losing a little blood isn't going to kill you."
