The Day My Survival Score Reached Zero Chapter 06
Her coat was buttoned wrong, and her hair looked much whiter than I remembered. She stopped in front of me, eyes red, voice shaking.
“Bella, don’t leave me.”
I froze.
“Mom,” I whispered. “Why are you here?”
“Dante said you were sick.” She held out her hand, careful not to touch me too suddenly. “He didn’t say you were trying to disappear.”
That word made my chest ache.
In this world, she was the only person who had loved me without needing proof.
I went back to the bed because I could not bear to see her cry.
Dante arrived soon after. When he saw Mother beside me, relief crossed his face before anger covered it.
“So now Mother has to beg you too?” he said. “All because Adrian married Sophia?”
Mother looked up sharply. “Dante.”
He fell silent.
Adrian and Julian stood behind him, both watching me like they finally knew I might break, yet still could not understand why.
Mother stayed with me through the night. She held my hand, spoke softly, and asked for no promises I could not keep.
For a few hours, I almost wanted to stay.
Almost.
But the Program sounded again before dawn.
【Isabella, please complete the exit as soon as possible.】
In the morning, I asked Mother to buy me cinnamon tea from the hospital café.
She hesitated.
I forced a small smile. “Please.”
That smile was enough to send her away.
Then a nurse came in and said Sophia was downstairs.
She claimed the sedatives Julian had prescribed were making her heart race, and she would not let anyone else examine her. For a moment, none of them moved. Adrian looked at the door, Dante looked at me, and Julian looked at the monitor beside my bed.
They were afraid to leave.
Finally, Adrian said in a strained voice, “We’ll only be gone for a minute.”
Dante told the nurse outside to stay with me, while Julian paused at the door and looked back.
“Isabella,” he said quietly, “wait for me.”
I gave him no answer.
Once they left, the room became quiet.
I slipped into the empty hydrotherapy room at the end of the corridor and locked the door.
The water closed over me.
By the time the nurse broke in, I had already stopped struggling.
When I opened my eyes again, there was a mask over my face and white light above my head. Someone was shouting orders, someone was crying, and my chest hurt with every breath.
I had not died.
Even that had failed.
Through the blur, I saw Dante outside the emergency room doors, his face bloodless. Julian was arguing with a doctor in a voice I had never heard from him before. Adrian stood behind them, motionless, staring at me as if he had finally understood that I had not been threatening anyone.
Mother was the one crying.
When they moved me back to the ward, she rushed to my side and held my hand so tightly that her fingers trembled.
“Bella,” she sobbed. “Why won’t you stay with me?”
I wanted to say I was sorry.
No sound came out.
Dante stood at the foot of the bed, his eyes red, but his voice still tried to sound hard.
“You really would have done it.”
I looked at him without answering.
Julian checked the monitor, then turned away for a second, as if he could not bear to look at me.
Adrian’s voice was barely audible.
“She almost died.”
No one corrected him.
Because this time, they had all seen it.
Later, after Mother cried herself faint and was taken to another room, Dante stood by the window for a long time before saying, “She can’t stay here.”
Julian’s voice was low. “She needs constant observation.”
Adrian looked at me. “A psychiatric facility?”
My fingers went cold.
If they sent me there, I would never be able to leave this world on my own.
For the first time in days, I spoke.
“Dante.”
He turned immediately.
I looked at him and forced the words out.
“I’m not insane. Please don’t send me there.”
His expression shifted.
For one second, I thought I saw my brother again.
Just one second.
And because his family-bond score had once reached eighty-two percent, I still foolishly believed he might choose me this time.
