At the party before the wedding, Ursula Henson's childhood friend shoved me down the staircase.

Several ribs snapped on the spot, and one of them nearly pierced through my chest.

Ursula went pale with panic, calling in the best medical team that very night to save me.

I thought she was afraid of losing me.

But inside the operating room, I heard her calmly instruct the doctor:

“Make sure you keep him alive. Aaron Joyce's concert is only days away, and it absolutely cannot be dragged down by something this ugly.”

“And take out his fifth rib for me. Aaron's new guitar still needs a set of bone picks.”

The doctor's eyes went wide with disbelief.

“But that's the rib closest to the heart. If it's gone, he'll be living with all kinds of complications for the rest of his life.”

“Thomas Harding probably won't be able to work as a captain anymore, either. He clawed his way up to that position. Are you certain?”

Ursula let out a soft laugh.

“His career, worthy of comparison to Aaron's dream? Aaron said it himself: because it's the rib closest to the heart, the pick made from it has more soul, and the music will sound all the more beautiful.”

“I promised him I'd make his first concert absolutely perfect. Enough talk. Worst case, I'll support Thomas for the rest of his life.”

I closed my eyes in grief, tears sliding from their corners.

So it turned out that in her heart, I would never matter as much as Aaron.

Then there was no reason left to go through with this marriage.

……

“Ms. Henson, if we implant a titanium rib, not only will it never fuse with the body, but every time the weather turns cloudy or rainy, Mr. Harding will suffer unbearable chest pain. If the frame shifts from an impact, it could well tear through the pleura, and he'd be facing the danger of open-chest surgery.”

“Honestly, the ribs of cattle or sheep can be used to make bone picks too. If nothing else works, there are plenty of body donors who could……”

Ursula cut the doctor off impatiently:

“No. Aaron thinks cattle and sheep ribs aren't smooth enough, no soul to them, the sound they make can't stir the audience's souls.”

“He has to be at rehearsal for the sound check by daybreak, and I'm making the pick for him myself. I don't have the spare time to go looking for another source.”

“Besides, I'm about to marry Thomas. He'll be living in comfort at home from now on, so what danger could there be? If it hurts, he can just bear with it. It's not going to rain every single day, after all.”

The doctor glanced at the blood on my body, saw my fingertips trembling faintly.

Knowing I could hear, and unable to bear it, he pressed on:

“But a guitar pick is so thin. We only need to take a small piece of bone. At least that way, Mr. Harding's rib cage would stay structurally whole, his breathing would be almost entirely unharmed, and he might even keep his job.”

“Why do you insist on taking the whole rib?”

Ursula scoffed:

“How long does a single pick even last? What if it breaks or gets lost? Aaron fought hard to get where he is today. His concert can't afford a single slip, so of course I'm going to prepare a few extras for him.”

“As for Thomas……after the wedding I'll hire a few more caretakers to look after him. He ought to be satisfied with that. Enough talk, get on with it!”

The anesthesia kept me from opening my eyes, and even more from speaking.

All I had was a heart as cold as the operating table.

I badly wanted to ask her: and the eight years I ground through to become a captain, was that easy?

When I woke, it was already the next day.

Faint morning light spilled in outside.

The bedside was empty.

I picked up my phone and saw that Aaron had posted to his Instagram feed an hour earlier.

It was a shot of Ursula sitting in his instrument room, her profile turned as she polished a guitar pick for him.

The caption read:

【So grateful that in every important moment of my life, you've been there, lifting me up.】

My rib had become a prop for them to flaunt their love.

“Thomas, you're awake?”

The door pushed open, and Ursula walked in, taking my hand, her eyes full of concern.

“The doctor said your fifth rib was too badly damaged. It could only be replaced with a titanium one.”

“This next stretch is the adjustment period. If your chest hurts, you tell me. Don’t you dare grit your teeth and bear it. I’m sorry. I didn’t protect you well enough.”

If I hadn’t heard those words with my own ears, I probably would have done what I always did, sinking into this counterfeit tenderness.

But I knew the faint bruised shadows under her eyes right now.

They hadn’t been earned staying up for me.

I slid my hand free without a word and opened the dial screen.

The moment Ursula saw the three numbers I’d typed, her face changed.

“You’re calling the police? To arrest who?”

I lifted my head, my voice even.

“The one who shoved me down the stairs and turned my rib into a guitar pick.”

Ursula seized my hand, her eyes sharp.

“Have you lost your mind? Aaron’s concert is a week away. How can you have the heart to ruin his future?”

My wrist ached under her grip. I looked at her.

“So I just deserved to have my career destroyed by you people?”

“Ursula, stop the act. Anesthesia takes time to fully kick in. I heard everything.”

Ursula froze for a beat, a flush of guilt rising in her face.

I didn’t deal with her. I used my other hand to place the call.

“Hello, I’d like to report a crime…”

Before I could finish, Ursula tore the phone away and smashed it to pieces.

Her eyes blazed as she jabbed a finger at me.

“Thomas, you’re just sore that Aaron kissed me. I already told you. He studied abroad for years. It’s normal for him to be a little more open about how he greets people.”

“If you hadn’t been so petty and thrown your drink at him, he wouldn’t have pushed you. He who provokes first pays for it, don’t you get that? This was always the compensation you owed him!”

Watching her stand there so righteous, I suddenly laughed.

“I’ve never heard of a single country whose etiquette involves tongue-kissing another man’s fiancée.”

“Or is it that you just enjoyed it? Fine. Then let’s break up.”

Five years together, and this was the first time I’d ever said the words.

Ursula’s expression stiffened, then she let out a scornful snort.

“Break up? Don’t make me laugh, Thomas. You became a private-jet captain because it put you close to rich people, so you could land yourself a golden goose and fill that bottomless pit of a family, didn’t you?”

“I already agreed to marry you. Who exactly are you putting on this self-made act for? Quit playing hard to get!”

I stared at her in disbelief.

It was true. I’d joined the private-jet charter company because the pay was better.

That was because my family was buried in debt, and I had to earn more.

But I never knew this was how Ursula saw me.

No longer the person who, when she confessed to me, said she’d been drawn to the way I fought and worked for everything.

Ursula glanced at her phone.

“Aaron wakes up in half an hour, and I need to bring him breakfast. If you’re hungry, have the nurse send up a patient meal.”

At the door, as if remembering something, she turned to look at me.

“Thomas, don’t forget. Last year your father racked up another million in gambling debts and got stabbed, badly. I called in a specialist overnight, saved his life, and paid off his debts.”

“And it was your parents who signed off on the surgery, because your brother wanted a wedding house in the city and came to me for two million. That much money, all for a single rib of yours. You made out like a bandit.”

“Be good. Don’t stir up trouble. At the end of the month I’ll still marry you as planned. But if you still want to call the police, I won’t stop you. Just give me back your father’s life and my money.”

The door swung shut in front of me.

I collapsed against the bed, buried my face in my hands, and laughed at myself.

So in her heart, our love, my career, my body, all of it was just a transaction to be measured in money.

But money could maybe be paid back. A life couldn’t.

Ursula was forcing me to cave, and all of it was to protect Aaron.

I borrowed a phone from a nurse and dialed the number I knew by heart.

"Sir, could you... lend me some money?"

On the fourth day, I was cleared to leave the hospital.

Fighting through the discomfort of the titanium rib in my chest, I went to the company and handed in my resignation.

Even if I could still barely tolerate flying someday, a pilot whose physical condition failed to meet standard.

Would never captain a plane again.

After that, I made a trip back to my hometown.

Even swallowing my pride, I could only bring myself to ask my old mentor for a million dollars.

Years ago, I'd used the wages I'd saved to build my parents a two-story house with a courtyard back home.

It had long been agreed the place would go to my brother when he married.

So that house wasn't something I could take, and there was no need for it either.

But the moment I stepped into the courtyard, I froze.

Aaron sat at the table with a guitar in his arms, pinching the pick made from my rib between his fingers, while Ursula stood beside him feeding him fruit.

Seeing me, Aaron greeted me with a smile:

"Thomas, you're back? My concert needs an opening music video shot, and Ursula said the scenery here was nice, so she brought me along. Figured we'd drop off the money for your brother's wedding house while we're at it."

"I'm really sorry about that night, I had a bit too much to drink, I didn't mean it. But your mom and dad have already forgiven me on your behalf."

My parents nodded along, fawning, their eyes darting again and again to the two boxes of cash on the table.

Not one of them asked how I was doing after the surgery.

I walked over, stared at the suit he was wearing, and gave a bitter little laugh.

"What, taking my rib wasn't enough? Now you're taking my wedding suit too?"

"Do your fans know they've got a thief on their hands?"

Aaron's expression shifted, and he looked at the woman beside him, wounded.

"Thomas, ease up. I gave Aaron that suit. He didn't have anything decent to wear for the video."

Ursula shielded him behind her, displeasure written on her face.

"Besides, your build was never as good as his. It'd have been wasted on you anyway."

That suit had been custom-made half a year in advance.

And I'd never even tried it on. It was already on someone else's back.

I looked at Ursula. "Then what about me?"

"The wedding's at the end of the month. You think there's still time to have a new one made?"

She knit her brows, impatient.

"It's just a formality, isn't it? Rent something when the time comes. Don't be so cheap."

I had nothing left to say. I pushed the two boxes of money back toward her.

"Take the money back. We've already broken up, and my brother doesn't need another wedding house bought for him."

Ursula's face went cold at once, and she turned to my parents with a sneer.

"Is that so? Do you two think the same?"

"Such a shame. I'd been planning to give a three-million-dollar payout."

My parents' eyes lit up instantly.

Before I could get a word out, my mother pinched me hard.

"You little wretch, did they take your brain out along with your rib? Who said we don't need it? You think it won't cost money when your brother has kids someday?"

"You're his older brother. Can't you show some sense? You think a breakup is something you just throw around?!"

So they really had agreed to it.

I shut my eyes, my heart gone cold.

"How much more sense do you want from me? The money I've made all these years either went to pay off your debts and build your house, or you schemed every way you could to swindle it out of me, so my brother could eat, drink, and play."

"For money, you'd sell off my career and my health, watch my fiancée parade around town with another man, and never once ask whether I was in pain."

"I've been sensible enough. My brother has two hands and two feet. If he wants a wedding house, he can go earn it himself. If he can't afford it, then don't have kids. I'm a person, not your cash cow!"