The Day My Survival Score Reached Zero Chapter 07
I thought Dante would choose me this time.
For one brief second, his eyes softened, and I almost believed he still remembered I was his sister. But then he looked away.
“Bella,” he said, “no one who needs help thinks they need it.
My heart sank.
“We’re doing this to keep you alive.”
So I was sent to a private recovery residence under the Bellandi name, the kind of place rich families used when they wanted illness hidden behind clean walls and quiet staff. My room had sealed windows, soft corners, no mirror, no lock, and a camera that watched me without blinking.
A nurse stayed outside all day. If I sat up, she asked what I needed. If I stared too long at the window, she stepped closer. II closed my eyes, someone came in to check whether I was still breathing.
I had never been so trapped.
I begged the Program in my head.
“End it for me.”
[Isabella, I do not have permission to terminate your life. After mission failure, you must complete the exit yourself.]
Even death had rules.
That night, Sophia came.
The nurse let her in because Mrs. Moretti had special clearance. Of course she did. In this world, every door opened for Sophia, even the ones locked against me.
She wore a pale silk dress, her wedding ring bright under the light. She stopped beside my bed and smiled.
“Does it feel awful? Wanting to die, but not even being allowed to try?”
I looked at the ceiling and said nothing.
Sophia’s smile thinned. “I was the one who suggested this place. Dante hesitated, but Julian agreed once I said I was worried about you.”
That sounded like her.
Kind in public. Cruel in private.
She leaned closer. “You still don’t know who I am, do you?”
I finally looked at her, and for one strange second, Sophia Lane’s perfect face overlapped with another girl from my real world.
Quiet. Poor. Always alone.
A girl I had once helped.
My breath stopped.
Sophia laughed softly. “You remember.”
“You’re from my world.”
“So are you.” Her voice turned light. “The dockside explosion wasn’t an accident, Isabella. I only wanted you gone for one
night. Then the Program took us both.”
My fingers tightened against the sheet.
“You caused it?”
“I opened the door,” she said. “The rest was fate.”
“I helped you.”
Her face hardened at once.
“No, you pitied me. You had family, friends, a future, and everyone loved you. Even your kindness felt like another way of reminding me I had nothing.”
I stared at her and understood.
She had never wanted my help.
She had wanted my life.
Sophia smoothed her dress and smiled again. “The Program gave us the same targets, but only one of us gets to wake up. Adrian only needs to say he loves me more than anyone, and I win.”
“What happens to me?”
“You stay here,” she said. “Locked away. Forgotten.”
She left after that.
For the next three days, I counted ceiling panels, footsteps, and the seconds between each check. I could not leave, could not die, and could not even sleep without someone watching.
On the third night, the lights flickered.
The camera went dark first. Then the hallway dimmed, and the lock on my door clicked open.
A man stepped inside in a stolen orderly’s uniform.
When he took off the cap, I saw Luca.
He looked thinner than I remembered, but his eyes were the same, dark and quiet, as if he had carried too many secrets for too
long.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I came as soon as I could.”
I stared at him. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“I know.”
“How did you get in?”
His mouth curved faintly. “Bellandi security is loud. Moretti security is expensive. Mine is quieter.”
He held out a coat.
“We have three minutes before the cameras come back.”
I did not ask why he cared, or why he had spent years running from me. I only looked past him at the open door and realized that, for the first time in days, no one was watching.
Luca’s voice softened.
“Isabella, come with me.”
I took the coat and followed him out.
