Chapter 1

My seventy-year-old grandma, Evelyn, died on the operating table. Overcome with guilt, Julian stabbed himself in the abdomen right at her funeral.

To care for him and handle Grandma’s arrangements, I didn't close my eyes for three days and nights. Yet, just because he whispered that he wanted some famous bone broth from Marley’s Diner, I ran across half the city to get it.

But when I returned to the hospital, I overheard him talking to his friend Marcus just outside the VIP ward.

"Julian, you were way too brutal on yourself. That stab wound went straight through your kidney. You only have one left now."

"Grandma was the one who raised Maya and me," Julian replied, his voice strained. "And she died on my own operating table. Giving up a kidney is my way of begging her for forgiveness."

"But why go to such extremes? If you hadn't left Grandma’s side right after opening her skull just to rush off and save Chloe Bennett’s grandmother, Grandma Evelyn might still be alive."

Marcus sighed. "And it’s been three days. Chloe hasn't even come to see you once. Was your sacrifice really worth it? If Maya ever finds out the truth, her heart will shatter."

Julian lowered his eyes, looking utterly desolate. "Chloe only has her grandmother left. I couldn't let her be left all alone in this world. As for me... I’m damaged goods now. I don't deserve to dream of a future with Chloe anymore."

"What about Maya?"

"I’ll marry her. I’ll take care of her for Grandma. Spending the rest of my life making it up to her should be enough, right?"

Tears rolled down my cheeks silently. The scalding bone broth spilled over my hands, but all I felt was a freezing, numbing cold.

It turned out that both love and family affection could be faked so perfectly.

Marcus looked uneasy. "But you secretly used the Alzheimer’s miracle drug that you and Maya spent years developing. What if she finds out?"

"That batch was supposed to be sent for clinical testing anyway. I’ll just tell her later that it failed the quality check. She won't suspect a thing."

"Also... arrange a vasectomy for me. I don't want any woman bearing my children except Chloe."

Marcus’s pupils dilated. "Are you insane? You’re giving up your chance to have a family just for Chloe Bennett?"

"Even if you don't want kids, what about Maya? You know how much she loves kids. She volunteers at the orphanage every weekend! How can you strip away her right to be a mother?"

Julian paused, and his next words were even colder. "Maya has chased after me for ten years. Agreeing to marry her is already the greatest charity I can offer. When the time comes, just write me a fake medical report saying she's the one who's infertile."

"As long as she thinks it’s her fault, she'll just blame herself. She won't badger me for children."

Hearing Marcus’s footsteps approaching the door, I forced myself to stay calm. I knelt down on the floor, frantically cleaning up the spilled broth.

Seeing my disheveled state, Julian struggled to get out of bed.

He even yanked the IV drip right out of the back of his hand.

"Maya, stop. Let the janitor clean that up. Look at your hands, they’re completely burned."

"When you’re hurt, it hurts me even more. Let me blow on it."

His eyes were filled with such deep, tender affection that I couldn't spot a single flaw. Even as his wound reopened, staining his hospital gown with fresh blood, he didn't seem to care.

If this had happened before, I would have been moved to tears by his touch. I would have given him the world if he asked.

But knowing that he risked his entire career and stole our drug just for Chloe made my stomach turn.

"Julian, will you come with me to see Grandma one last time?"

After today, Grandma would be cremated, reduced to a handful of ashes.

Before she passed, she always said her happiest wish was to see Julian and me get married.

I had already lost Grandma. I couldn't lose Julian too.

But right then, Julian’s phone buzzed.

"Julian! Grandma woke up! She remembered me!"

Chloe's weeping, ecstatic voice echoed through the speaker.

"I’m so sorry... I’m just so happy. I forgot how painful it must be for you to lose Grandma Evelyn."

"Julian, if you and Professor Cooper are hurting, I’m willing to give up my own life to pay for Grandma Evelyn’s."

Julian scolded her gently, "Don't say that. Evelyn was already a burden. You and your grandmother are the most important people in my life."

Julian's voice was as soft as a spring breeze, yet it ran like ice through my veins.

Grandma Evelyn had raised Julian and me, two orphans, all by herself. She had spent decades scouring dumpsters, collecting cans, and living off food stamps just to feed us. In her old age, she developed Alzheimer's.

For her sake, in his senior year of high school, Julian gave up his beloved physics.

I followed in his footsteps, switching my major from humanities to science, just so we could enter medical school together for Grandma.

Over the years, as her condition worsened, we never stopped our research.

Just a few months ago, we finally developed a breakthrough drug to treat Alzheimer's.

Combined with surgery, it had a sixty percent success rate.

Julian was the top neurosurgeon in this field. Grandma... Grandma should have been cured.

Even if she couldn't be fully cured, we had the money now to make sure her remaining years were comfortable.

A burden!

The Grandma who Julian once knelt before investors to get funding for—he now called her a burden.

"Maya, why are you crying?"

"Are you feeling sick somewhere?"

I grabbed his hand before he could press the call button, asking him one last time, "You’ll be there for Grandma’s funeral tomorrow, right?"

"She loved you the most. She always gave you the biggest portions of food."

"She didn't have a son. You need to carry her urn."

Julian pulled me into his arms, promising solemnly, "I’m her boy. I will definitely be there to send her off on her final journey."

I stared into his eyes. Julian, can I still believe you?