**Audrey's POV*

I stared at Adrian, trying to make sense of what he'd just told me. A twin sister? My parents had another daughter they'd abandoned?

"So I have a twin sister I never knew about, and she had brain death from heart failure..." My voice trailed off.

"So when you were dying, we found you," Adrian cut in flatly. "Initially,we planned to perform a brain transplant."

"What?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"Your healthy brain, her functioning body." He shrugged like he was discussing a business deal. "You were dying from cancer. She was brain-dead but physically fine. It seemed logical at the time."

"Are you insane?" My hands gripped the sheets. "You thought you could just slice me open and take parts like I'm spare machinery?"

"It would have been groundbreaking." His tone remained clinical. "But Dr.Clarke refused. Said the tech wasn't there yet."

"So what, you decided to experiment on me some other way?"

"Not an experiment. Treatment." He corrected me with a dismissive wave."Dr. Clarke went with the safer option - surgery followed by his new medication. Your cancer is in remnission."

I tried focusing on my breathing."Why me? Why not anyone else?"

"Identical twin. Perfect match." His lips curled into something that wasn't

quite a smile. "Plus, you were dying alone. No family that cared. A husband who'd moved on. Friends busy with their own lives. Nobody who'·d look too hard if you disappeared."

I felt a chill. "You researched me?"

"Everything. Blake Parker's coldness. Your miscarriage. Your isolation." He listed off the worst moments of my life like items on a grocery receipt. "You were the perfect candidate."

Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. "You had no right. This is my life."

Adrian didn't answer. Instead, he opened the bedside drawer and pulled out a silver handgun.

"Your choice remains." He placed the gun on a stack of newspapers."Stay here,accept reality, help raise my daughter - or..."

He pointed at the gun. "Take the easy way out if living seems too hard."

With that, he walked out. The door slammed behind him.

I sat frozen, staring at the doorway. My brain struggled to accept everything he'd said.. I was alive. Somehow, I hadn't died.

Eight months ago, I'd accepted death as inevitable. Now I was alive,but facing a different kind of hell.

My gaze drifted to the gun. Did I have the courage to die on my own terms this time?

I reached for it but noticed the headlines on the newspapers underneath:

[SHOCKINGI Parker Group CEO Blake Parker Attempts Suicide at Ex-Wite'

s Grave!]

The photo showed Blake on the ground, surrounded by police and Parker family members. I flipped to another paper.

[Model Astrid Wilson's Career Destroyed in Nude Photo Scandal!]

The images showed Astrid - noticeably thinner - with rotten food on her face.

I grabbed more papers, my heart racing. James Collins accused of plagiarism. Ethan Davies exposed as a college sugar baby.

*Bullshit.* I knew Astrid better than anyone. This had to be a setup.

The papers weren't random. They showed me everyone I cared about was suffering since my "death."

**Adrian's POV**

"Adrian, this is too risky." Eleanor stared at the closed door. "After everything we did to keep her alive..."

She wrung her hands. "Giving her a gun? What if she uses it?"

I leaned back on the sofa. "It doesn't matter."

Those newspapers by her bed showed everyone she cared about in crisis.If she had any feeling for them, she wouldn't die easily.

"The gun tests if she wants to live," I said. "If she chooses death, she wasn't worth saving anyway."

Eleanor frowned. "I hope you know what - "

A gunshot exploded from the hospital room.

Eleanor's face went white. I sprang up and rushed to the door, panic surging through me.

**Audrey's POV**

I held the smoking gun, a bullet hole in the ceiling. "Just checking it wasn't a fake. It's real enough."

A middle-aged woman rushed in behind Adrian and grabbed the gun,passing it to someone outside."Put this away!"

She turned to me, anxiety written across her face. "Does this mean you're choosing to live?"

I studied her carefully. Unlike Adrian, her eyes showed genuine concern.She seemed kind - nothing like the man who'd handed me a loaded gun.

"Yes, I'm choosing life," I said firmly. "But not on your terms."

I tossed the newspapers toward them. "My friends need help. They've been set up."

Adrian laughed.′′Inyour condition? What help could you possibly be?"

"I'm still going back," I matched his stare.

The woman sat beside me. "Child, I'm your sister's mother-Eleanor.I understand how you feel, but you're nowhere near strong enough for travel."

"And you owe me," Adrian cut in.Ten million in treatment costs. We risked everything bringing you here. Without us, you'd be in the ground."

"So that's it? You saved me just to put mne in your debt?"

Adrian went silent. For once, his face showed something besides coldness.He stared at me like he was seeing someone else through my features.

"I owe your sister," he finally said, his voice lower. "In her final days,finding her lost family was all she talked about. I promised I'd help you."

Eleanor took my hand. "We hoped you'd help with Emma because she's your niece. Adrian travels constantly. She needs a mother figure."

Her eyes stayed on mine. "But we won't force you. Recover first,then decide."

I looked between them, understanding dawning. Adrian wasn't just cold -he was drowning in guilt.

"Tell me about my sister," I asked. "What was she like?"

Adrian gazed out the window. "Strong. Optimistic, even knowing her time was limited. She designed beautiful jewelry. You have her talent."

He paused. "Her last wish was to meet you, to ask you to care for Emma.She believed you'd be a good mother."

I took a deep breath. "I need time to think."

I looked at them both. "But I do know one thing - I'm choosing to live.whatever happens next."

I spent the next few days in physical therapy, learning to work with muscles that had atrophied during my coma. Adrian made himself scarce,but Eleanor visited daily. I still didn't trust him,but I found myself warming to her.

When Adrian ducked out for a business call one afternoon, I seized my chance.

"Tell me about my sister," I said. "The real story. Not his version."

Eleanor's shoulders drooped slightly. "Fair enough."

She pulled out a leather album from her tote bagand handed it to me."This might help."

I opened it and froze. The woman staring back at me was... me, but not me. Same face, same features, but her eyes held something mine never had -peace.

"Weird, right?" Eleanor said.

I nodded,turning pages.

"She started Q·elegant when she was twenty-two," Eleanor said. "Built it from nothing to one of Australia's top jewelry brands."

"Her heart condition was congenital. Doctors warned pregnancy could kill her. When she got pregnant with Emma... we all begged her to consider alternatives."

"She refused?"

"Completely. Said Emma was worth any risk."

I glanced up. "And Adrian?"

Something shifted in Eleanor's face. "Adrian was... absent. Building his empire. The closest they got was after her diagnosis worsened."

I understood the unspoken truth. "He feeIs responsible."

"He wasn't there when she needed him." Eleanor said simply. "Now he's trying to fix something that can't be fixed."

I flipped to the last page and noticed an envelope tucked inside the back cover.

"What's this?"