The hospital's head doctor came to check on Laura himself.

"Your daughter has a congenital heart condition? Why on earth was she in gym class?" he asked, his face etched with concern and a hint of reproach.

"That can't be right!" I was on the verge of tears.

Laura was born in this very hospital, and I had her checked by colleagues immediately. She was the picture of health with no sign of any congenital illness.

"Also, your daughter's fracture seems to be from a severe impact. You need to get some answers from the kindergarten!" he advised.

"Poor kid, she's going to need at least three months to recover."

A shiver ran down my spine.

I checked every second of the kindergarten's surveillance footage.

Nonetheless, the mystery was right there!

In the video, no one came near Laura. The kids were simply doing their running drills when suddenly, Laura began to cry out in pain.

The teacher called the school nurse right away, but when they found nothing wrong, they had to call me in a panic.

Soon after, Laura passed out on the sofa.

The teachers tried to move her to a bed, but before they could lift her, blood started seeping from Laura's leg, as if it were broken.

My mind was reeling; I could not fathom how that had happened.

When Laura came, I asked her urgently, "Sweetheart, how are you feeling? Are you still in pain?"

Laura burst into sobs. "Mommy, my hand hurts! My whole body hurts! I'm hurting everywhere!"

That was when I noticed her hand, grotesquely swollen.

Without thinking, I checked Alicia's social media and was stunned to see her follower count had skyrocketed to over half a million.

The buzz around Tony's bungee-jumping video was skyrocketing online, with everyone freaking out over that four-year-old daredevil.

[Hey, kiddo, did you level up without us? That's a fifty-meter dive!]

[He didn't just stick the landing–he walked away like it was nothing. Scary stuff!]

Alicia, riding the wave of hype, rolled out a challenge series titled, 'Tony's Top 100 Extreme Stunts.'

One fan threw down the gauntlet: if Tony was untouchable, they wanted to see him go hand-to-claw with a monster lobster.

I had seen clips where those lobster claws could snap a phone screen like a cracker!

Alicia did not blink; she was all in. There was Tony in the video, bare-handed, holding his own against the lobster's onslaught. His chubby little hands came away without a scratch!

Meanwhile, I was left patching up Laura, taking deep breaths to steady my nerves, trying to make sense of it all.

Alicia had somehow transferred Tony's heart condition to Laura. Even the injuries could be passed on. Laura did not have to lift a finger, and still, the pain could jump to her.

It was downright eerie! How on earth did she do it? Was it because Laura and Tony were related?

Out of options, I called Jeff. "We need to divorce!"

His voice came through, audibly annoyed, "All this over not picking up Laura? Do you have any idea how much people are tipping Tony? You're all hair and no brains. I'm looking out for our family, and you're just throwing a fit over nothing!"

Desperate for a quick split, I was ready to walk away empty-handed. After all, I was the one who bought the RV, and Jeff's earnings barely covered his habits.

Without a second thought, he returned, and we signed the divorce papers. Soon after, he and Alicia settled into a swanky villa, paid for with Tony's live-streaming cash.

"You're such an idiot; I won't give you the time of day ever again!"

Alicia boasted about the drama on her streams. "Tony's got a real gift, and I want him to rake in the dough. It'll make life easier for all of us!

"Who would've thought she'd be so twisted, accusing me of messing around with my brother-in-law and throwing a tantrum for a divorce!

"She even told Jeff a whopper about her daughter being deathly ill! Probably just green with envy over Tony's success and trying to hog all the family's love for herself!"

They branded me as unethical, incompetent, and jealous. In no time, I was the talk of the town, and patients steered clear of me. The hospital gave me no choice but to take a leave of absence.

Honestly, my job was the least of my worries then. Seeing Laura all battered and bruised, I took her back to my parents and changed her last name.

With the Charlton family out of our lives, I believed Alicia would not have Laura suffer for Tony's troubles!

I kept a close eye on Alicia's streaming antics.

I found out that in three days, she planned to have Tony take on monstrous waves, some as high as buildings. Tony was just a kid, barely taller than a surfboard!

When the day came, my parents and I were glued to the stream, faces all tense. They believed my worries, not a shred of doubt–nothing like Jeff!

My eyes started to water. If only I had listened to them and not married Jeff out of pity!

Then, from my phone, the broadcast began. Alicia and her entourage had made it to the beach.

Tony clutched his oversized surfboard and sprinted into the ocean. The waves knocked him around as expected, but he popped back up in no time, not a hint of a cough.

I rushed to my daughter's room to check on her. She was still lost in slumber, and I let out a sigh of relief.

However, in a heartbeat, she started crying and coughing up water, her face turning ghostly white. My parents and I jumped into action, giving her CPR. Still, she seemed stuck in a perpetual drowning spell.

I did not notice things until I saw the live stream that Tony kept tumbling into the waves, standing up repeatedly, until he finally rode them like a champ. The kid was tiny, but after countless wipeouts, he nailed it.

Everyone was calling him a wonder kid, grit and guts in spades, and not even the deep sea could knock him down.

Why? How did Alicia pull it off?

Hearing my daughter's pained screams, I was racked with guilt.

In desperation, my parents and I drained our savings to buy control over Tony's challenges. I did it anonymously through a friend's account, shelling out 1.5 million dollars. Alicia's eyes lit up at the sight of the cash, and Tony's next challenges were safe ones, like sorting out a mountain of green beans. My little girl could finally heal, the fear fading away.

I never saw it coming, though.

Alicia took the money and still decided to send Tony through the Saharain Desert a week later. I was livid, ready to give her a piece of my mind, but she simply blocked me, leaving me shouting into the void.

"Just 1.5 million dollars, and that's enough to fund ten whole ventures! But these days, everyone's yawning at the same old stunts. Someone's even shelled out 7.5 million to watch Tony hoof it across the desert!"

Some level-headed folks tried to talk sense into her. "The kid is too young, and the desert is too vast. Even if he were bulletproof, he'd be worn out!"

However, Alicia just shrugged it off with a nonchalant wave of her hand. "Don't fret over it. Just make sure you've got your tips ready. You're in for a show watching my boy, the braveheart, conquer the sands!"

I was hit by a wave of despair.

What was I to do? If Tony set foot in that desert, my daughter was bound to die all over again!

Tears streamed down my face as I looked at my daughter in bed, swathed in bandages. She reached out with her tiny hand, trying to console me, "Mommy, don't cry. It's my fault for always getting sick..."

"No!" I cut her off, my voice thick with emotion, my eyes shining with resolve.

I could not go through another lifetime only to lose her to some mysterious fate! I managed to persuade my parents, sold our city home, and moved the family out to the country.

With 750 thousand dollars in hand, I went back to Alicia.

[This money won't be enough to call off the challenge,] she warned.

I quickly typed back, [There's no need to cancel it. I just want a front-row seat to this miracle. Let him bring along a phone with a stand for a live, first-person broadcast!]

It was like taking candy from a baby. Alicia agreed on the spot.

The day of the challenge, I was glued to my phone, watching Tony's every step through the desert.

The heat was so intense, it felt like it was radiating right through the screen. Alicia and her crew, comfy in their air-conditioned car, were still flushed from the blazing sun.

However, Tony? He did not even seem to break a sweat.

"Mommy, I'm so hot, it hurts!" Laura whimpered.

The air conditioner was cranked to its lowest setting, but Laura's cheeks were still a fiery red, her skin scorched from the sun.

At last, my eyes landed on Tony's feet in the camera lens.

I finally understood Alicia's trick, how she had shifted Tony's agony and illness onto Laura.