He Drained My Bone Marrow for My Sister

My sister, Chloe, got sick. Since then, she slapped my fianc, Ethan, every single day.

Ethan Carter! You thought my family was biased toward me, didn't you? You wanted to avenge my little sister, right?

Hit me back! Why don't you hit me back?!

Why do you look down on me? Why do you call me a drama queen? You hate the whole world, but you only love Scarlett, don't you?

Slowly, Chloes screaming turned into sobbing.

"Why? Why does everyone else love me, but you don't?"

That night, Ethan didn't come home.

Later, on my birthday, the night of my surgery, and the night I almost died, he never came back either.

When I finally saw him again, he tricked me onto the operating table under the guise of a marriage proposal, just to drain my bone marrow for Chloe.

At their wedding, to protect Chloe's reputation, Ethan publicly accused me of being the one who seduced him.

So, I left the city.

I walked away from that sole, fake, and fleeting bit of love.

1.

Five years later, Ethan found me at a funeral home.

I was doing reconstructive makeup on a corpse that had been completely disfigured in a car accident.

Ethans lips trembled. "After leaving me, you ended up living like this?"

"Thanks to you and your wife, being a mortician is the only makeup artist job I could find."

Ethans eyes turned red. He said anxiously,

"Scarlett, I only wanted to teach you a lesson. I didn't want you running around screaming to everyone that Chloe was a homewrecker...

I never thought youd rather vanish than apologize to me."

I shoved him away. "State your business and get out. If you don't have any, just crawl back to where you came from."

His lips moved, and he said, "Chloes cancer relapsed. We need you to donate bone marrow again."

I burst into laughter. "Ethan, did you forget? You told the world I was a homewrecker. Why would a dirty little homewrecker be sweet enough to donate bone marrow to her rival?"

Hearing my response, Ethans eyes widened in shock.

His face turned cold, and he reached out to grab my arm.

"Scarlett, stop talking like that out of spite."

"You just packed up and ran away all these years. Chloe was the one staying by your parents' side, taking care of them. Plus, shes your sister."

"How can you just watch her die?"

I took a step back. My voice wasn't as hysterical or angry as I thought it would be.

"I just rebuilt the face of a dead person."

"I earn my own living with my own hands. I don't find it creepy or cursed at all."

"At least dead people don't team up with my fianc to steal my bone marrow."

I picked up my makeup kit and brushed off some non-existent dust from my apron.

"So don't talk to me about sisterhood. If you don't have anything else to say, stop bothering me. My new client today was in a horrific car crash, and the facial reconstruction is going to take a lot of work. I don't have time to waste on you."

Something I said must have triggered him. His face darkened.

Just as he was about to point his finger at my face and lecture me like he used to, his phone rang.

I saw the caller ID. It was Chloe.

He turned his back to me and picked up. "Chloe? Yes, I found Scarlett."

"Oh, she's doing just fine. Shes too heartless to actually suffer. Don't worry, shes thrilled to hear were letting her come home."

"Yes, she'll agree to the donation."

I stood there, listening to him twist the truth so effortlessly.

I was completely speechless.

When he hung up and turned back to me, that smug, confident look was back on his face.

He acted as if my rejection just now was nothing but a cheap negotiation tactic.

Sure enough, Ethan started offering me terms.

"You know Chloe has been fragile since we were kids. We can't let her know about certain things. Itll stress her out."

"If youre still bitter about the past, you don't have to move back into the family house. Ill buy you a separate condo and wire you a huge sum of cash. But we can only visit you twice a week at most. You know how Chloe gets..."

I cut him off. "Save it."

Ethan froze.

His endless babbling stopped instantly.

The look on his face was pure shock. After all, the old Scarlett would never have interrupted him. Back then, just to have him stay with me a little longer, I would listen to him ramble and scold me like a submissive puppy.

"I have work to do, and I can afford my own meals. You should save your charity for the homeless, Mr. Carter."

Ethan was choked by my words.

Finally, he let out a long sigh.

"Scarlett, do you really have to talk to me like this?"

How else should I talk to him?

I didn't think there was anything left to say between us.

"Scarlett, you weren't like this before. You've changed. You know I had no choice back then. It didn't mean I didn't love you. Why can't you just understand me?"

"Didn't I use to be the most important thing in your life?"

Of course I knew I wasn't like this before.

But when you get tripped up and fall flat on your face enough times, you naturally learn to grow thorns to protect yourself.

I looked up and stared coldly into his eyes.

The sheer chill in my gaze made him flinch for a second.

Suddenly, I smiled. It felt as if a heavy chain around my heart had finally snapped.

"Yes, because back then, my world was too small, and I was starving for love."

"So I foolishly believed you were my rock, the lover who would protect me."

"But now I realize, Ethan, youre really nothing special."

The color instantly drained from Ethan's face.

I gave him a mocking smirk.

"What? Are you going to get my boss to fire me again?"

"Get lost. If you stay here any longer, your wife might find out I won't save her. Shell get so stressed she might have another panic attack."

Ethan followed me all the way to the morgue doors before finally stopping.

He stood there, hesitating, a flicker of conflict in his eyes.

After a moment, he turned and left.

Another reconstructive mortician nudged me with her elbow. "Who was that hot guy?"

"I heard he put up a million-dollar bounty just to find you."

My chest tightened.

A million dollars. When my parents threw me out of the house, he wouldn't even give me a hundred bucks.

But for another woman, he didn't hesitate to throw around a million.

He loved her so much, yet he still came to me acting like a heartbroken, tragic hero.

I didn't hesitate to tell my colleague,

"Just a piece of trash from my past."

She laughed nervously. "Alright, you don't have to say if you don't want to. No need to be so harsh."

Without looking up, I said, "If someone tricked you into being a homewrecker, stole your bone marrow, and now comes back demanding more, what would you call him?"

She fell silent. After a while, she whispered,

"An enemy. Someone Id pray ends up on my prep table so I can mess up their embalming."

I didn't hate him that much.

Love and hate both take energy, and I didn't want to waste a single drop of mine on worthless people.

To be fair, Ethan never technically tricked me into being a homewrecker.

He just waited until my bone marrow was inside Chloe, and then immediately released a joint statement with her family announcing that the bride-to-be had been switched to Chloe.

And when I screamed at him in front of the reporters, he looked at me and said,

"Scarlett, I never said I was going to marry you. It was all in your head."

Chloe, who had just recovered from her illness, sobbed on camera.

"Scarlett, I don't know why you're doing this. Since we were kids, youve always wanted to steal everything from me. I let you have everything else."

"But Ethan is the love of my life. I can't let you have him."

The flashing camera lights turned my face pale.

I looked past the crowd at our parents.

They stood quietly behind Chloe.

When my dad met my eyes, he turned his head away.

My mom had pity in her eyes, but her mouth opened to spit out:

"Scarlett, how can you be so shameless? Seducing Ethan, your own sister's fianc?"

2.

I wasn't always the outcast in this family.

They used to love me.

I used to be an important part of the household.

On our living room wall, there were two height-tracking charts.

The higher one was Chloes, and the lower one was mine.

Every time we measured our heights, Mom would hug me and say,

"Look at that! My baby is growing so fast!"

No matter how busy they were, they would always take us on vacations around the world every summer and winter.

We watched penguins in Antarctica and lions in the African savanna.

Once, we saw a flock of flamingos gathered by a drying riverbank.

With a few loud cries, they took flight, looking like a massive, flying red cloud.

"Wow!" Back then, Chloe and I held hands, completely amazed by the sight.

But when I looked down at the riverbank, I heard a sad cry.

We looked closer.

It was a flamingo with a broken wing, running fruitlessly after the flock.

I thought it was so sad and asked Mom and Dad to save it.

But Chloe was the opposite. She was always the cold, rational one.

She looked at me and said, "That's just nature, Scarlett. Survival of the fittest. You shouldn't try to change fate."

The moment she finished speaking, blood started gushing from her nose.

Mom said the African heat was too dry for her.

So, we flew back home immediately.

Our parents took Chloe to the hospital for a check-up. When they came back, their faces were pale.

With red eyes, Mom stroked my head. "Scarlett, Chloe is very sick. You have to let her have her way from now on, okay?"

Dad nodded beside her.

"Chloe won't be able to play with you for a long time. You need to learn to take care of yourself, and take care of her."

After saying that, he turned around and wiped his tears.

Being so young, I only understood one thing.

Something bad had happened to my family.

So, I nodded solemnly. "I will."

I thought this was just me being a mature, understanding daughter.

But slowly, my entire existence was erased, piece by piece.

Because Chloe needed more sunlight, my bedroom was turned into her playroom.

Because Chloe suffered from severe migraines during her treatments and needed absolute quiet, my piano lessons were canceled.

Later, on my birthday, Chloe handed me a gift.

My usually elegant sister leaned in close and whispered, "Scarlett, why couldn't the sick one be you? You're so useless anyway."

I gasped and stumbled backward.

The gift dropped and shattered on the floor.

But Chloe burst into tears before I could even process what happened. "Scarlett, I know Mom and Dad have been ignoring you because of my sickness."

"But you don't have to take it out on the gift I bought you. If I could choose, I wouldn't want to be sick either. Do you know how jealous I am watching you celebrate your birthday?"

"Every year, you get to look forward to a new age. But for me, it's just terror. I don't even know if I'll survive to see the next one."

Our parents' hearts broke.

They wrapped her in their arms, their faces filled with pain and pity.

When they looked at me, their eyes were full of disgust.

My mom, who used to praise me for being so easygoing, said coldly,

"Throwing a tantrum over nothing! You are so selfish and greedy. Why can't you be more mature?!"

From that day on,

I never had another birthday party, because it made Chloe sad.

Hearing this, Mia, my colleague, gasped.

"Your sister said that to you, and you didn't tell your parents?"

I smiled faintly.

"When people are biased, the truth sounds like a lie anyway. What was the point of talking?"

At first, I did try to tell them about Chloes cruelty toward me.

But they just sat in silence for a long time.

Then, the woman who gave birth to both of us said with a sigh of disapproval,

"Chloe is sick, Scarlett. Why do you have to be so petty with her?"

"Can't you just let her win for once?"

Eventually, even when I said absolutely nothing,

Mom would lean against the hospital wall, exhausted, and stare at me with cold, hollow eyes.

"Scarlett, your sister was right."

"Why couldn't the sick one be you?"

Mias eyes welled up with tears. She looked at me, trying to blink them away.

Then she said,

"Screw them. We don't need them."

"From now on, we'll celebrate every single birthday with you."

I smiled warmly at her.

"Thanks, I appreciate it. But after some things happened, I stopped celebrating birthdays altogether."

She wanted to ask why, but hesitated.

I said casually, "The day I was tricked into donating bone marrow, and the day I found out the truth..."

"That was my birthday."

"When I was lying on that operating table, Ethan told me he had a birthday surprise for me."

"When I woke up, I saw him putting a ring on Chloe's finger, telling her they'd pick out the prettiest bridesmaid dress for me."

3.

Honestly, they didn't even have to trick me. I wouldn't have refused to donate my bone marrow to Chloe.

They were just paranoid because of their own guilt.

Because they knew how much they owed me.

My SAT scores were great, which made Chloe cry.

So, to keep the peace, I chose a major they hated: Mortuary Science.

The day my college acceptance letter arrived, my mother actually looked a bit guilty.

"We have enough money to support you for the rest of your life."

"It's just a college major, don't be so dramatic. Why don't you drop out and come work at the family company?"

I ignored her.

Mom frowned, clearly annoyed.

That night, when I went downstairs to get some water, I heard her talking to Dad.

"Scarlett is too cold-hearted."

"She always acts like we owe her something. If she wasn't my own flesh and blood, I wouldn't even look at her."

Dad replied, "Then don't."

With just those few words, my college fund was cut off. I didn't receive a single dime for living expenses.

I had to work multiple part-time jobs.

Using my skills in cosmetics, I occasionally got hired to do makeup for freelance models.

That was how I met Ethan, who had also been cut off by his family and was working as a part-time model.

He was incredibly handsome, and everything he wore looked like custom designer clothing.

He was constantly booked for gigs.

Naturally, we got close.

When he found out about my family, his eyes were full of sympathy.

At that time, we hadn't made things official yet. There was just that sweet, innocent tension between us.

One day, Ethan suddenly told me he was going home to call off an arranged engagement.

I thought he was joking and laughed.

"I didn't know you were some rich heir. Who even does arranged marriages these days?"

But Ethans face was deadly serious. He looked straight into my eyes.

"I'm serious, Scarlett."

"I have someone I love now. So I am calling off that wedding, no matter what."

A few days later, my parents, who hadn't called me in months, suddenly phoned.

They stared at me as if they were evaluating a piece of cheap merchandise.

After a long silence, they sighed with disappointment.

"Studying dead people really brings bad luck."

"No wonder he wants to call off the wedding."

"Yeah, if only Chloe weren't sick."

They dragged me to a luxury hotel without explaining anything.

When they pushed the door open, a wealthy middle-aged couple was sitting inside. Next to them was Ethan.

The engagement cancellation was never mentioned again.

When Ethan realized that I was the younger daughter of the Miller family, his eyes lit up like stars.

He told me, "Scarlett, we are meant to be."

"Don't worry. I'm here now. I will protect you and never let you suffer again."

"I will love you forever."

What a beautiful promise.

And back then, I actually believed him.

I believed he would love me forever.

My heart was so full of happiness

that I forgot to refuse my parents' demand for me to move back home.

When we arrived, Chloe was sitting at the dining table, slowly sipping an expensive organic green juice.

Seeing me, a smirk spread across her face.

"What happened? You look so happy."

Instinctively, I hid my ring finger behind my back.

Her smile vanished instantly. She said flatly,

"Scarlett is a big girl now. She has secrets."

That very night, Chloe went missing.

Our family searched for her all day.

My parents were losing their minds.

I walked up to Mom to comfort her. "Don't worry, Mom. Let's call the police first. We'll find her."

Suddenly, her hand flew up and slapped me hard across the face.

My ears rang from the impact.

"This is all your fault!"

"You have someone who loves you! You think you're so special! If Chloe weren't sick, you wouldn't even be standing here gloating!"

"You ungrateful brat! Chloe left a note. She said you were rubbing your wedding in her face because you hate her! Now she's sick, her immune system is weak, and she's been gone for twenty-four hours. Are you happy now?!"

Dad watched the whole thing with cold eyes.

Nobody bothered to ask if I had even spoken a single word to Chloe since I got home.

Eventually, Chloe was found in the public library.

She looked at the red slap mark on my cheek, and her lips curled up.

She turned to Mom and said, "Mom, Scarlett really crossed the line this time."

"We should teach her a lesson, right?"

Seeing our parents nod, my heart turned to ice.

At that moment, I wanted to see Ethan so badly.

So, even though they locked me in the basement,

I managed to break the small window and crawl out.

The broken glass sliced my arms and legs, leaving me covered in blood.

I dragged myself all the way to Ethans apartment.

He wanted to hold me but was terrified of hurting my wounds.

His eyes were filled with tears of pure rage and heartbreak.

"How could they do this to you?! What right do they have?!"

After my wounds were bandaged at the hospital,

Ethan wanted to go demand justice from my family, despite my protests.

I held him back.

Ethan was more furious than I was. He asked hoarsely,

"Are we just going to let them get away with this?"

I shook my head. It wasn't that I didn't want justice; it was just impossible.

If a stranger hurts you, you call the cops. But with family, the law just calls it a "domestic dispute."

"You can't choose your bloodline, and you can't easily cut off your family."

Ethan gently held my hands, treating them like fragile glass.

"It's okay, Scarlett. You can choose your partner."

"From now on, as long as I'm here, I will never let anyone hurt you again."

Ethan used to be my entire world.

4.

The memories faded from my mind.

I guess Ethans sudden appearance had dragged up all those old, painful thoughts.

Not long after Ethan found me, my deputy director, Robert, called me into his office.

He poured me a cup of tea and started talking about family, his own struggles, and his past conflicts with his parents.

Then, he said in a warm, fatherly tone,

"Scarlett, I know how hard it was when you first started here. As a parent myself, hearing about your past breaks my heart."

"But blood is thicker than water. When you get to my age, you realize that regretting not making peace with your parents before it's too late is a pain you can't cure. Youre still young. Don't let your past become a permanent regret."

I knew someone had pulled some strings.

Whether it was my parents or Ethan, I didn't care.

The old Scarlett believed family was an unbreakable bond.

The current Scarlett believed that some bonds were meant to be burned.

I looked calmly at Robert.

"Whether they are family or strangers, donating bone marrow is a personal choice."

"I know what you're trying to do, but I already donated once."

"I don't owe them anything. So, my answer is still no."

Robert sighed. "But she's your sister."

"Have you thought about what happens if you refuse? She will die."

"If you let your own sister die, how will people look at you? Itll ruin your reputation here at the funeral home."

I didn't get it. I worked at a crematorium.

My daily "clients" couldn't talk.

Why would I care about my reputation?

I looked up at the man who had been a good boss to me.

The door to his private lounge was slightly ajar. I didn't even need to guess who was hiding inside.

"I understand, but I still refuse."

"To them, Ive always been invisible. Since Im just an extra, we should keep out of each other's lives. They throw me away when they don't need me, and drag me back with guilt trips when they do."

"I despise people like that."

"Bam!" The lounge door was kicked open.

My father rushed out and slapped me hard across the face.

He glared at me, his eyes bloodshot with rage. "We raised you! We fed you, clothed you! How dare you talk about cutting us off?! You ungrateful bitch!"

Robert jumped up instantly and pulled me behind him.

"Keep your hands to yourself! Why are you hitting her?!"

"Do you want to solve this or not?!"

My cheek felt numb. I knew it was already swelling up.

I looked at my furious, weeping parents.

Then I looked at Ethan, who was standing behind them with a slight frown, and I just laughed.

I turned to Robert. "Robert, you said the old director brought me here when I was a complete mess."

"You gave me a job, and I appreciate that. Usually, I wouldn't say no to you."

"But did you know? The day the old director found me, I was actually trying to hang myself."

"But I was so broke, I couldn't even buy a decent rope. It snapped."

The angry expressions on my parents' and Ethans faces turned white instantly.

Guilt and panic flashed across their faces.

Honestly,

The time I spent with Ethan after escaping my family was the happiest of my life.

No Chloe, no toxic parents.

We did everything I had always wanted to do but couldn't because of Chloe.

We ate foods I was never allowed to touch.

Then, Ethan was scouted by a talent agent.

He starred in a few low-budget web series and became an overnight sensation.

Dozens of agencies wanted to sign him.

Ethans only condition for signing any contract was that I had to be his personal makeup artist.

When his first movie premiered, his agency threw a massive party.

My parents and Chloe showed up.

Ethan held my hand tightly under the table and whispered,

"Scarlett, my manager invited them. If you're uncomfortable, we can leave early."

"No need."

This was his big night. I didn't want to ruin it for him.

Chloe walked over, smiling as she swirled a glass of juice.

"Scarlett, you ran away for so long without a word. Mom and Dad were worried sick. Turns out you were just busy chasing a boyfriend."

I raised my glass of champagne, drank it in one gulp,

and walked away without saying a word to her.

When I turned back, Chloe was still standing there, smiling.

My mother was whispering insults next to her. I knew she was calling me ungrateful.

A few days later, Ethan suddenly said to me, "Scarlett..."

"I think your sister is actually pretty pitiable."

"She's so young and has this awful disease. She can't eat anything fun, can't travel, and her family doesn't even understand her."

I didn't get it back then. My parents practically worshipped the ground she walked on.

How did Ethan come to the conclusion that Chloe was unloved?

It wasn't until I woke up on that cold operating table that I finally understood.

The "ununderstanding family member" he was talking about... was me.