Leaving Madness in My Absence

Mackenzie said through sobs, "Marcus, could it be that Bianca thinks… I'm trying to steal you away from her? I didn't mean to. I was… I was just too scared that I wouldn't graduate."

Marcus' expression softened considerably as he gently patted Mackenzie's head. "Silly girl, how could we ever abandon you?"

"Even if we're not related by blood, you're still our sister," Jeremy chimed in.

"From now on, don't think about such things. As long as we're around, we'll never let anyone bully you," Andrew promised as well.

I floated in the center of the living room, listening to their gentle and comforting words toward Mackenzie. They were such a sharp contrast to the cold words I heard before I died.

It was utterly laughable. I murmured, "From now on, you have only one sister."

They soon stopped talking about me. To them, I seemed to be nothing more than insignificant trash.

With that, the atmosphere in the living room became cheerful and harmonious once more. Mackenzie nestled in Marcus' arms, acting coy. Jeremy told her amusing anecdotes from the hospital. Andrew sat nearby and was capturing this warm scene with his phone.

My soul drifted through the wall and back to the greenhouse where I was imprisoned. Dead silence filled the space, and the air reeked with the smell of pesticide that was mixed with the rotting fragrance from the flowers. It was nauseating and foul.

My body remained in the same position as when I died. I was curled behind the door with both hands gripping the doorframe tightly. My broken fingernails wedged into the cracks.

That very day, I had planned to show them the offer I had just received from the Seinland Cardiovascular Research Center over dinner. I had wanted to surprise them. I wanted to tell them that I, too, could become someone they would be proud of.

I had even contacted specialists there for Mackenzie. There was a possibility that her congenital heart disease could be cured.

But Mackenzie's single scream shattered all my fantasies. In front of the entire campus, she cried and accused me of swapping out her graduation thesis, which she had spent three years preparing.

I had no way of defending myself because I had indeed copied the thesis from her computer. I could not understand why her paper, which supposedly carried three years of her effort, had turned into a rough draft full of flaws.

My brothers ignored all my explanations and dragged me into the greenhouse to lock me in.

"You're so ruthless, Bianca!"

"How could the Graham family produce a disgrace like you!"

My final memory was of Andrew personally locking the greenhouse door.

Mackenzie had stolen my remote control and pressed the button labeled "Timed Pesticide Spray". It was a remote my brothers had developed to help me care for the flowers, but she used it to kill me.

Andrew once joked with a smile, "From now on, the greenhouse is yours to manage. If anyone dares to bully you, I'll stuff them into the flowerbed and let them become fertilizer."

That playful remark was absolutely ironic now.

Looking at my lifeless body, I couldn't help but feel that this was all so absurd.

In the living room, Mackenzie suddenly let out a soft "Ah!" while pointing at her temple.

She turned to Marcus and said pitifully, "It hurts so much… Whenever I think of Bianca's ferocious expression that day, I can't stop trembling with fear."

There was a small bruise on her fair forehead. I had accidentally hit her while struggling against my brothers as they dragged me away. But now, it had become yet another evidence of my cruelty.

Marcus' expression turned incredibly grim as he fumed, "She was clearly in the wrong! How could she do that to you?"

Anger flared in Jeremy's eyes. "It seems locking her up for one day is too easy on her. She hasn't learned her lesson at all!"

Andrew set down his phone with a glacial gaze. "Marcus, Jeremy, we can't let her off so easily. I say we make her come out and apologize."

A flash of excitement flickered in Mackenzie's eyes, but she quickly hid it and hurried to dissuade them. "Please don't… Bianca didn't mean it. What if she's still angry…"

The more she spoke like this, the more furious my three brothers became.

They exclaimed, "You're simply too kind, Mackie!"