From birth, I carried a one-in-a-million gift—my words could avert disaster, turn misfortune into blessing, and make the impossible happen.

Because of it, I had helped countless people find safety, success, and peace.

Until I married my childhood sweetheart.

His company was collapsing, desperate for my help.

But under the glare of the spotlight, I stood mute.

No matter how my husband and his family pleaded, even kneeling before me in desperation, I only shook my head and sighed.

From that day forward, I never spoke another word.

——

Late one night, I sat cross-legged in the stillness of the temple, silently reciting the Beatitudes with my eyes closed.

The door slammed open.

Lawrence Ashford stormed in.

“Selene, Alex and Claudia were in a car accident—they’re both in the hospital! Hurry and save them!”

I didn’t even stop for shoes. I followed him out.

Alex—my only son—had been taken from me years ago. After I went silent, Lawrence handed him over to his childhood sweetheart, Claudia, saying my “eccentric nature” made me unfit to raise a child. He never let me see him again.

At the hospital, Alex was still in the emergency room.

Claudia Voss lay pale in a hospital bed. The moment she saw me, her arrogance vanished; tears spilled down her face.

“Selene… please save me,” she begged.

“I was injured protecting Alex. The doctor says I need both legs amputated… but I’m still so young.”

She clutched my wrist. “Please—just say a word and save my legs!”

I met her desperate eyes, but only shook my head.

Lawrence’s voice rose in fury.

“Ten years ago, my distant cousin had both arms severed in an accident. The doctors said there was no hope, but you told them, ‘They can be reattached,’ and the impossible became a miracle! Have you forgotten that?”

He gripped my shoulders hard.

“Claudia has raised Alex for you all these years—more than your own mother ever did! And now you can’t even help with this one favor? You’d just watch her lose both her legs?”

My eyes burned red. I signed, my fingers trembling:

I told you not to let them go out today. Why didn’t you listen?

Because even when Alex was born, I had foreseen it—he would never live past ten.

And today was his tenth birthday.

Days ago, I’d warned Lawrence. I’d told him this was the one day Alex could not leave the house. It was the first request I’d made of him in years.

He’d laughed in my face, calling me a madwoman, saying it was a good thing Alex wasn’t in my care. Only after my repeated pleas did he agree, nodding as if to humor me—then promptly let Claudia take him out.

When I confronted him, he glared at me with open hatred.

“How dare you? Alex begged to go to the amusement park for his birthday! And you—always spouting your nonsense—would rather ruin the day than be a real mother. When your help is truly needed, you’re completely useless!”

His words cut deep, but I stayed silent.

Claudia’s sobs filled the room. She clung to the hem of my clothes.

“Selene… I know you’ve hated me for raising Alex all these years. But I swear—if you save my legs, I’ll give him back to you and never set foot in the Ashford family again.”

Claudia’s sobs were raw and desperate, drawing sympathy from everyone around.

But I only shook my head, lowered my gaze, and pried my clothes free from her grip.

The sharp crack of a slap rang out. My head snapped to the side.

“Selene,” Lawrence seethed, “I was the one who asked Claudia to raise Alex. If you need someone to hate, hate me—don’t take it out on her!”

His voice dropped to a cold threat. “If you don’t agree to save Claudia, I’ll divorce you. Right here. Right now.”

In all the years of our cold war, Lawrence had tried everything—pleading, anger, even cruelty—but he had never once uttered that word. Divorce.

I stared at him, momentarily hollow, my mind flashing back to the beginning.

We had met young. He was the only person who never cared about my so-called lucky star, never asked me for miracles. With him, I could laugh, breathe, and be myself.

When we fell in love, he treated me like I was the only thing in the world worth cherishing. Everyone believed our story would end in happily ever after.

Until the day of our wedding.

That morning, the Ashford family’s stock market holdings collapsed, losing tens of billions in a single day. Bankruptcy loomed.

Before a hall full of guests, Lawrence begged me—for the first time—to save the Ashford family.

Everyone thought I would agree. It was such a small thing for me, and I had saved countless entrepreneurs before.

But this time, I clenched my teeth and refused to speak.

Even when he and the entire Ashford family knelt, bowing their heads to the floor, I stayed silent. Tears streamed down my face as I wrote a blood oath: I would never utter another word again.

The room had gone deathly quiet. Lawrence’s devastation was something I still saw in my dreams.

In the years that followed, he swung between tenderness and cruelty, desperate to make me speak again.

When Alex was born, he clung to hope—that motherly love would make me break my vow. But all he saw was me rocking our crying infant in helpless silence.

When Alex could walk, he once ran toward me from across the street—straight into the path of a car. I froze, unable even to shout “Stop.”

Disappointment hardened into something colder. Lawrence stopped expecting anything from me. Claudia secured the investments he needed, pulling him out of crisis. From then on, he spent his days with her, taking Alex along. To outsiders, they looked like a perfect little family of three.

---

The sharp voice of a nurse snapped me back to the present.

“The boy from the car accident—his condition’s critical! Blood pressure only seventy! Get the defibrillator, now!”

The words struck me like a hammer blow. My knees buckled, and I sank to the floor.

Lawrence yanked me upright.

“Selene, you refuse to help others—but what about Alex? He’s your son!” His voice cracked. “I saw you tell an old man on his deathbed that he would live—and he lived for another ten years!”

“Alex’s life is hanging by a thread. How can you just watch him die?”

I could only weep in silence.

Something in him snapped. His hand shot to a nearby tray, grabbing a scalpel. The cold steel pressed to my throat.

“Selene, if you don’t speak to save Alex—believe me—I’ll kill you!”

His eyes were wild, bloodshot, pleading and furious all at once.

But I closed my eyes, tears sliding down my cheeks, and held my silence.

“Speak! Speak!”

The scalpel’s blade bit into my neck, slicing the skin, parting flesh inch by inch.

“Ah!”

Lawrence’s roar was animalistic. He thrust the scalpel toward my head with such force that a cold jolt shot through me. Metal grazed the corner of my eye; heat and wetness blurred my vision.

The blade buried itself deep in the ward’s wall, quivering from the impact.

“You bitch!” His voice shook with rage. “You wouldn’t even spare your own son. What right do you have to live?”

His palm crashed against my face.

Blood trickled from my lip, but I swallowed my words.

More blows followed—harder, faster—until the world tilted and my body folded to the floor. I stayed silent, even as the hospital staff rushed in to restrain him.

“If you keep hitting her, someone’s going to die. Don’t be impulsive,” the attending physician warned. “I swear we’ll do everything we can to help.”

“What good will that do?” Lawrence seized the doctor by the collar, voice low and lethal. “If Selene speaks, Claudia’s legs can be saved. My son can live. Can you guarantee that?”

When the doctor couldn’t answer, Lawrence shoved him aside.

“Selene,” Claudia sobbed, “I know I’ve wronged you these past years, but it was all to take care of your son. Please—help me.”

I slumped against the wall, vision glassy.

If I can’t even beg to save my own child, why should I save her?

Lawrence’s face hardened. At that moment, I knew something in him had broken.

He seized my throat and slammed me against the wall. “Selene, listen to me. If Claudia’s leg isn’t healed tonight, I’ll make you feel every ounce of her pain. If Alex dies, you die with him. Don’t test me.”

The pressure on my windpipe stole my breath. I clawed weakly at his wrists until darkness nipped at the edges of my vision. Only then did he let go.

---

His bodyguards dragged me down the hall and locked me inside the utility room.

That evening, Nanny Evelyn came with a tray of food. She lingered at the door, her voice hushed.

“Madam, I heard everything. I know these years haven’t been kind to you, and Claudia has treated you cruelly. But… even for your own sake, you should help.”

I shook my head, mute.

Her sigh was heavy. She left without another word.

When the footsteps faded, I broke. Silent tears soaked my sleeves.

Alex might resent me for my silence, might hate me for not being there—but he was still my son. My blood. My heart.

---

Sometime past midnight, pounding shook the door.

Lawrence stormed in, his face a mask of grief and fury.

“Because of you, Claudia’s leg was amputated!” His howl rattled the walls. “Bitch! Why didn’t you save her?”

I bit down hard on my lip, tasting iron. But somewhere in my eyes, a flicker of satisfaction glinted.

Maybe I am small-minded.

How could I bear to watch another woman wedge herself between my husband and me? How could I stand to see her raise my child as her own?

Especially when she was the one who had endangered my Alex in the first place.

“Didn’t I tell you?”

Lawrence’s gaze darkened, the light draining from his eyes.

“I’ll make you feel the same pain she’s suffering.”

At his signal, shadows shifted in the doorway—his bodyguards stepping forward.