The Desert Island Survival Was Just A Scheme For My Long-Lost Sister Chapter 08
Derek pushed open the VIP hospital room door. Jenna was already in character, looking pale on the bed.
“Derek… you came. I feel so dizzy…”
Derek sat beside her, his face unreadable. “It was you, wasn’t it?”
“That low-boiling liquid,” he said. “I had it locked in the villa’s basement. Only two people have keys. You and me.”
Jenna feigned hurt. “Why are you being so mean? What happened to Nat was an accident.”
Derek softened his voice. “I know you did it for us, Jenna. I understand. I’m on your side.”
He leaned in, coaxing. “Your parents found evidence. Tell me everything, and I’ll help you cover it up. I’ve always protected you. Don’t you trust me?”
Jenna threw her arms around him. “Derek, of course I trust you! I did it all for us—for our future together…”
“Ethan figured us out. He told me to stay away from you. He said you were promised to her, that you were part of the family plan.”
Her eyes grew hard. “Why did she get everything? All the love, all the devotion, and my future husband too?”
Her voice dropped to a snarl. “I hoped the island would finish her. But she was stubborn. So in the end, I had to finish her myself.”
Derek went stiff. Then he laughed, a low, creeping sound that made
—
her shrink back. He pulled her hair, hard, and held his phone up. On the screen, the Hartwell family stared back.
“Did you all hear that?” Derek’s voice cracked. “That’s your precious daughter.”
On the video call, my parents wailed, “Our Nat! We brought a monster into our home!”
Ethan appeared in the doorway. Guards seized Jenna and dragged her out.
“Where are you taking me? Let go of me!”
She clawed at Ethan’s sleeve. “Nat is dead! I’m the only Hartwell heir now. You can’t do this to me…”
Ethan shoved her away. “Nat was the only Hartwell heir,” he said coldly. “You came from nowhere. You go back to nowhere. And every pain she suffered, you will suffer.”
Jenna’s screams faded as the van doors slammed shut.
In the silence, Derek drove a knife into his own chest. The white sheets soaked red.
“Nat,” he whispered, “I found the killer. I’m giving you my life.”
He went still.
Ethan didn’t call for help. He stood at the window, chain-smoking.
When Derek’s heart stopped, he looked up and smiled, like he’d seen me.
—
“Nat… is that you?”
He threw himself toward the sky. Security tackled him. He clawed at the windowsill and wept.
And then, a burst of color. A clock appeared before me.
[Countdown to Reality Reset: Seven days.]
My parents, broken, were in the ICU.
Ethan flew my body home. He buried me in the best plot he could find. He stood guard at my grave for seven days, hoping to see me just once more.
But by the end, even he wasn’t sure anymore whether he’d actually seen me that day—or if it had just been his grief playing tricks on him.
He received two calls. One from the boat monitoring Jenna. “The snake bite put her close to death. We gave her antivenom. She’ll recover, but she broke her leg in the fall.”
Ethan said, “Put her back on the island. Wait till she’s critical again.”
The other call was from the hospital. “Your mother is gone. Your father is brain-dead.”
Ethan answered. “Pull the plug.”
The voice on the other end hesitated. “Mr. Hartwell, with your family’s resources, we could easily sustain your father’s care indefinitely—”
“I said no.” His voice was flat, final. “I’m authorizing the removal of life support as next of kin.”
—
The moment Ethan signed the Do Not Resuscitate order and the withdrawal of care consent forms, the countdown hovering before my eyes ticked down to zero.
My vision went white. I opened my eyes to the familiar walls of Fairview Children’s Home. My heart thumped strong and true. I was back in the real world.
On the other side of the Interface connection, Ethan stood before my grave. Then, without warning, a line of text flickered across the surface of the headstone:
[Congratulations on completing your “Favored-Child NPC” mission. Would you like to spend all virtual assets for a chance to be reborn?]
Ethan thought for a moment. Then he understood. “I accept!” he shouted.
The lottery ticket in my hand, the one I’d used to buy my family, blazed with numbers, a fortune no one could comprehend.
Somewhere in the world, a baby was born with all his memories intact.
His mission was simple: to find Nat, and protect her forever.