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"Sis,we can swap!Since I ran,the Russos are hunting me..."
"We look alike.Swap clothes,scar your face,go back with them—no one'll know!"
She said it so naturally,I couldn't believe my ears.
"You want me to die for you?"
I was blunt.She hesitated,then nodded.
"Sis,I was naive a lifetime ago,didn't know your pain.I've had enough—give me back my life..."
Damn.
Not a shred of humanity.
"Why should I?"
Done talking,I walked toward the campus.
She screamed,pulling out a fruit knife from her coat.
"Why?Why won't you swap back?You'll regret this!"
She lunged at me,aiming for my back.
But I had prepared myself for something like this.I tackled her easily,knocking the knife out of her hand.
She was no match for me a lifetime ago,and now weakened by hunger,frail as a chick.
I held her down,calling the police.
She struggled like hell.
I said,
"Why?You're terrified of Ethan.I'm sending you to jail—never see him again.Good,right?"
She howled,
"I fear him,but I don't want jail either!Sis,why can't you take my punishment and let me live well?"
As expected,she feared Ethan but was willing to give up nothing except me.
Her nerve!
I called the police despite her pleas.
Mia suddenly burst free,sprinting to the road.
The second before a truck hit her,she smiled.
"Sarah,let's do this again.God'll give me another shot!"
A loud crash.
Mia's body was sent flying in the air before landing a few feet away across the road.
Blood was splattered everywhere.
Was she...dead?
My hand dropped.As police questioned me,I asked for an ambulance.
Staring at the carnage,I wondered what'd happen if she reborn again.
...
But she couldn't be reborn.
Because she didn't die.
At the hospital,her critical injuries needed immediate surgery,requiring a family member’s signature.
Dr.Carter,asking me to sign,said before entering the operating room,
"Don't worry,I won't let your sister die.It's my job."
He turned,closing the ER doors behind him.
With that white coat on,he was off to wrestle death.
Four hours later,the ER light went off.
Dr.Carter emerged,sweating,yet smiling.
Ironically,Mia,who looked down surgery,was saved by it.
But post-surgery,she never left the hospital.
Not from a failed operation.
But because that she had developed severe mental disorders.
In the hospital,she ranted every day about Ethan cursing and threatening her.
Over only three months,she had injured several nurses while they were changing her dressings.
She was diagnosed with schizophrenia,persecutory paranoia,the doctors found her highly aggressive and demanded that she be kept inside an asylum.
My last visit,she drooled,muttering,
"Sis,I'll choose Dr.Carter this time.You go with Vince to the Russos..."
Poor thing.
The Russos were gone.
Police had long targeted them,gathering evidence against them.
Mia's crash was linked to the Russos and Ethan.
Following the trail,police dismantled the Russo Gang.
Vince got the death penalty,all his assets were seized.
Ethan fled abroad,he was swindled by his beloved,and beaten to death by vagrants.
They deserved all there.
...
Years later,Dr.Carter retired.
But,determined to help people til the day he die,he opened a small clinic in our neighborhood,treating minor ailments.
The old man,well into his years,worked eight-hour shifts.
I studied hard,graduated from a medical school with my PhD,and joined the hospital in our city as a surgeon,taking over Dr Carter’s lifesaving scalpel.
Many patients would come to our home expressing their gratitude—some for me,some for Dr Carter.
