The second day of giving my brother the silent treatment, my face was smashed beyond recognition by a murderer and I was delivered to his operating room.
He calmly cut open my body and transplanted my heart into his girlfriend, Anna Lee.
After the surgery, he finally saw the distress messages I had sent.

But his first words were curses—"How old are you to still play these 'crying wolf' games for attention? If you want to die, do it somewhere far away!"
I became the corpse under his hands, shattered beyond recognition.
Later, he pieced together a mutilated body and pressed Anna down in front of my grave.
"Lily, I've avenged you. Please come back."
The second day of the silent treatment with my brother, my face was shattered by the murderer and I was brought into his operating room.
He calmly cut open my body.

His assistant asked uncertainly, "John, it's been a while since you've handled clinical work. Are you sure you want to perform such a delicate surgery yourself?"
My brother glanced tenderly at the woman on the other operating table.
"Yes, Anna only trusts me."
Anna Lee, his ex-girlfriend.

She had a congenital heart condition.
"But if anyone finds out you performed surgery while serving as a medical examiner—"
My brother said firmly, "No one will know if you don't talk. We finally found a matching heart—I won't let this chance go."
The assistant sighed, "Such a pity for this girl. She is so young. They said it was a hit-and-run. Her head was crushed, yet she still had vital signs. What a strong will to live..."
"She looks around Lily's age."
My brother suddenly thought of something and lifted my left arm.
There used to be a mole there, but the killer had gouged it out.
The killer knew me well—even had access to my brother's private operating room.
It could only be Anna.
My brother relaxed but sneered, "Don't mention her. She's too selfish to ever agree to donate her heart!"
The assistant fell silent, embarrassed.
The surgery was successful.
I died; Anna was given a second chance.
My soul hovering in the air, I watched my brother pull out his phone after the surgery.
The moment he saw my SOS messages, he tried calling back.
But my phone had long been destroyed by Anna.
No one would answer.
Furious, he yelled into the disconnected line, "Aren't you too old for these kinds of jokes?!"
"The address you gave was my operating room—what, were you the body on the table?!"
Yes, brother. I was that body.
But even if he knew, he'd probably just applaud.
After all, he hated me that much.
Anna's father had been wrongfully imprisoned.
She begged my mom to testify, but my mom refused, so she broke up with my brother.
Because of that, he resented me, and he hates that I stood by our mother.
But he never knew: Anna's father was the mastermind behind that kidnapping.
The next day, my brother got a call from the police department.
"A body's been found. Come back to the station."
My brother had transitioned to being a medical examiner at the precinct just a month earlier.
Many people sighed over a brilliant cardiologist switching to forensics.
But I knew it was only because Anna once said, "I admire medical examiners more."
He abandoned years of dedication. He forgot it was our mother's illness that made him choose medicine in the first place.
I followed him to the station.
His colleague, Detective Mike Lewis, briefed him.
"The killer dismembered the body and dumped the parts near Old Henry's place. Bold move."
Uncle Henry was a veteran medical examiner, an old friend of our dad.
Mike warned, "Be careful, and tell Lily to stay alert too."
My brother scoffed, "The only reason she didn't want me becoming an examiner was because she was scared of retaliation."
He still thought my disapproval was about fear.
Mike said earnestly, "You're siblings. No feud is worth holding onto forever."
My brother snapped, "This isn't a feud!"
He slammed the table, making everything shake.
The year after Anna's dad was imprisoned, he died of illness in jail.
My brother blamed mom and me for everything.
"We verified it—he really was a trafficker. Your mom and Lily had nothing to do with it."
My brother snorted, "The department's full of dad's old buddies—of course they'd cover for them."
Mike sighed, knowing it was pointless.
He was my dad's protégé—like an older brother to me.
Ever since everything happened, he'd tried to mend things between us.
My brother picked up the autopsy report.