Why did Orion feel like those words were directed at him?

He turned to look at Lemira. "If you weren't 'you,' then what would you be like?"

"Me? Let's say I stayed with the Langston family, dedicating my entire existence to serving my brothers. Let's say I constantly took the fall, constantly swallowed my pride, but absolutely refused to leave. What would you do?"

When Lemira finished speaking, she saw his brows knit together tightly. Clearly, this hypothetical scenario was incredibly difficult for him to stomach.

The man looked into her eyes. "Why would you even imagine a scenario like that?"

"No reason, just wondering. If you don't want to answer, you don't have to. I was just asking."

Orion gave her a long look before shifting the car into gear and driving her back to her apartment.

He parked on the side of the street and waited until the living room lights flicked on. He could easily picture her moving about the space.

Orion rolled down his window and dialed her number.

She picked up almost immediately. "Hello? Did you forget something?"

"I thought about your question," he said. "If you were truly like that, I would have helped you from the shadows, but I wouldn't have interfered with your life."

After all, that was exactly what he had planned to do when he first went to her university.

Hearing his answer, Lemira finally understood Orion's actions in her past life.

He genuinely hadn't interfered, yet he had quietly helped her in countless ways.

It was her own fault for being so hopelessly blind, refusing to see that her brothers weren't worth the sacrifice.

A heavy silence hung over the line.

Orion's throat felt dry. "Are you mad?"

He could have easily fed her a sweet lie, but he refused to be dishonest with her ever again.

Lemira cleared her throat. "No, I'm not. I told you, it was just a hypothetical."

Orion exhaled softly. That was a relief.

Lemira couldn't resist asking one more question. "So in that case, would you have married Sophia?"

Orion paused, then let out a low chuckle.

"Is it really that funny?" Lemira asked, hearing the amusement in his voice.

Gazing up at the warm light spilling from her window, a faint smile graced his lips. "My taste really isn't that bad."

Lemira smiled at his answer. "Alright, I'm going to sleep."

She hung up the phone.

So, in her past life, he hadn't ended up with her, but he hadn't ended up with Sophia either.

Thinking about that made her feel infinitely better.

But he had still given her so much help back then.

If only she had woken up when she

was kicked out of the house. If only

个

she had reached out to him and told.

him she wanted to leave theo Langston family.

He definitely would have helped her, wouldn't he?

It was just a tragedy that she had been utterly blinded by hatred.

Suddenly, temira thought of Sophia. The woman's current pathetic state, horrored her own final days in her past life perfectly.

Did that mean the tragedies that were meant to happen would still happen?

A knot of anxiety tightened in Lemira's chest.

She quickly pushed the thought away, telling herself she was just overthinking.

The next morning, the very first thing Lemira did was text Thaddeus.

She needed to know if they had secured the organ donor match.

Thaddeus replied instantly: "It was destroyed. Unusable."

Lemira's heart plummeted to her stomach the moment she read the message.

Were they still too late?

She dialed his number immediately.

Thaddeus answered on the first ing. "Lemon, I'm at the hospital right

now. The guy we sent was up all

night we haven't broken the news to Amanda yet."

"I'm going to call Rowan right now," Lemira said firmly. "He definitely has another

way."

She hung up and opened her chat with Rowan.

After a brief hesitation, she decided a phone call would be faster.

Rowan's voice drifted through the speaker. "Little sister, you're calling about Orion's mother, aren't you?"

How did he already know?