The last thing I remembered was the cold hospital room and the flatlining heart monitor. My wife, Ava, wasn't there; she was too busy arranging my adopted brother Ben's funeral.
My own birthday had been my death sentence. Mr. Chen, a rival, lunged at me with a knife. Ava, my bodyguard and fiancée, threw herself in front of Ben, not me.
The blade severed my spinal cord. I spent a decade paralyzed, yet I married her, giving her everything-my fortune, my name, my pathetic love. She never let me touch her.
Only after her death did I learn the truth: love letters addressed to Ben, bank statements showing her funneling my money to him. Her last diary entry: "Ben is everything. I will protect him with my life, just like I did on that day."