Mid-sentence, Silas's phone rang.

"Looks like it's the hospital."

He cleared his throat, put on a face of pure ignorance, and answered. A second later, his expression shifted to shock.

"What did you say?"

His voice traveled a careful arc: calm to stunned, stunned to grief-stricken, grief-stricken to devastated. Then he hung up.

Zoe paced in frantic circles. "What happened? What is it? Don't you scare me like that!"

Silas's expression smoothed back to perfect calm.

"Relax."

"The hospital couldn't reach the registered owner of the car, so they found my number listed as the emergency contact. The owner's phone is probably under James's name. He's taking that Nicole girl to some clinic out of town for a prenatal checkup today, so he probably didn't pick up. That's why they called me instead."

He waved a dismissive hand. "That whole performance just now? Acting. I can't exactly let them think I heard my daughter-in-law and granddaughter were in a wreck and didn't bat an eye."

Zoe let out a small breath of relief. "So what did the hospital say? Are they both dead?"

Silas shook his head. A flicker of disappointment crossed his face.

"No."

"Neither of them. One's in critical condition, the other has minor injuries. What a shame. God really is blind." He sucked his teeth. "The hospital called because they want us to come in with money. Surgery alone is going to cost a fortune, and post-op recovery plus skin grafts will bleed us dry."

Zoe let out a sharp, contemptuous snort.

"A wreck that bad and they still didn't die?"

"Isn't that always the way. Good people die young, but cockroaches live forever!"

"Now what are we supposed to do? If they're not dead, they're dead weight. Half-alive is worse than gone. They'll drag us straight into the ground." Her voice climbed higher. "We have savings, sure, but that money is for our grandson. For his house, his car, his future wife. Not for Gay Fox and that worthless girl."

Silas picked up his phone and tapped through it with practiced efficiency.

"Don't worry. I've already thought this through."

"The one in critical condition has to be Gay. The minor injuries are probably Lily. All we have to do is make sure Gay's treatment fails. Once she's out of the picture, Lily actually becomes our little cash cow."

"Here's what we do. We pretend we fainted from the shock. As long as we don't show up and nobody pays, the outcome takes care of itself."

Now I finally understood why my daughter died in my previous life.

When the crash happened, I'd been out of my mind with terror, but maternal instinct took over. I'd unbuckled my seatbelt and thrown my body over hers, shielding her with everything I had.

But when I woke up, they told me Lily's injuries had been too severe. That she hadn't made it.

Even then, something hadn't sat right.

I was the one who should have been hurt worse. So why was she the one who died?

I'd investigated for months afterward and turned up nothing.

And my parents hadn't known a thing. Nobody contacted them. They didn't find out until Lily was already gone, stumbling across the accident on the news. They'd rushed to the hospital and arranged my surgery just in time.

If they'd arrived even a little later, I wouldn't have survived either.

My teeth clenched so hard my jaw ached. But I forced myself to breathe, to steady my hands, and picked up my phone.

I called them.

On the other end, Silas and Zoe nearly jumped out of their skin. They might as well have seen a ghost.

I didn't give either of them a chance to speak.

I sobbed so hard I could barely get the words out, gasping between every syllable, voice cracking and raw.

"Mom, Dad, what do I do? There was a crash. I... I don't even know how this happened."

"Where are you right now?"

"We're at the hospital and we really need you here. The doctor says treatment is going to cost so much money, but no matter how much it is, we can't give up!"

"I already called all the relatives and friends over. If we can't come up with the money, I'll beg them to lend it to us..."

The moment Silas and Zoe heard I'd summoned everyone, their panic flipped straight into fury.

After all, if they borrowed money from the Delgado side of the family, guess who'd be on the hook to pay it back.

So they were beside themselves.

"Don't panic. Your mother and I are on our way."

"That's right, just hold tight! Whatever it is, wait until we get there!"

Even though they said they were coming right away, it still took them a full hour to finally stroll into the hospital.

The second they arrived, they didn't even pause before jabbing their fingers at me and tearing into me.

"This is all your fault! If you'd bothered to get the car properly checked, none of this would've happened!"

"That child is my whole world! We raised her from nothing, wiped every tear, changed every diaper, and you let this happen to her? Do you want me dead too?"

"How dare you walk away without a scratch! If anything happens to her, you should be the one in the ground!"

...

Neither Silas nor Zoe said any names outright.

Which suited me perfectly. The vaguer they kept it, the more room I had to keep playing my part.

So I didn't argue.

Instead, I dropped to my knees at their feet.

"Mom, Dad, you're right. It's all my fault. If it weren't for me, this accident never would've happened."

"But now isn't the time to point fingers. The doctor said the burns are severe. Surgery has to happen immediately. But I don't have any money. You know how it is. Everything's on James's card, and I don't even know the PIN."

"Please. I'm begging you. Put up the money, and James and I will pay you back every cent."

Silas and Zoe knew the situation perfectly well.

The moment I said that, the tension drained right out of them.

Inwardly, they were congratulating themselves. The text they'd sent James had worked. Their biggest fear was that he'd answer my call, rush to the hospital, and actually spend money saving our daughter.

So when I told them I was broke, they both heaved long, theatrical sighs.

"Well, what can we do?"

"Your mother and I live on our pensions. Every spare dollar already goes toward the household. We can't just pull surgery money out of thin air."

I slumped to the floor.

"Then what do we do?"

"Maybe I should call my parents. They'll have money."

I pulled out my phone.

Silas and Zoe didn't stop me. Instead, they pointed toward the stairwell.

"Go make the call over there. It's too loud here with all these people. We'll talk to the doctor in the meantime, get the full picture."

I nodded and carried my phone to the stairwell.

After I left, the crowd of relatives and friends gathered around Silas and Zoe, offering comfort. Several of them pulled out cash on the spot, pressing it forward to help with the emergency.

Silas and Zoe were all gratitude and graciousness, but they refused every last dollar.

They put on a show of consulting with the doctor, nodding gravely as he explained the situation.

The doctor told them:

"The burns are extremely severe. Frankly, with burns like these, the real nightmare is the post-operative recovery. Your family needs to be prepared for a long road."

"The good news is that the patient has an incredibly strong will to survive. We believe he can pull through. This is the surgical consent form. As soon as you sign, we begin."

Silas took the consent form.

His expression twisted with feigned anguish.

But he still opened his mouth.

"No surgery."

"We want to let our child go peacefully. Without pain."

The doctor froze.

"I'm sorry, what? The woman from before, Mrs. Fox, she said—"

Zoe cut the doctor off mid-sentence.

"She's in shock from the accident. She has no idea what resuscitation even means. We're the patient's elders. We have the right to refuse treatment."

She was already waving her hand, rushing things along.

"Hurry up and bring us the do-not-resuscitate form. We need to sign it. The sooner that child is free from suffering, the better."

Under the pressure of both of them, the doctor had no choice but to produce the consent form.

I had just hung up the phone and walked over.

"Refuse treatment??"

Silas and Zoe scrawled their signatures in a frenzy, practically shoved the doctor back through the doors, then turned and grabbed me by the arms, already launching into their pitch.

"I know you can't bear to let Lily go, but keeping her alive is just prolonging her pain. We're doing this for her sake!"

"That's right. You're still young. You and James can always have another child!"

I stared at them, shaking, my voice cracking as I shoved them both so hard they stumbled to the floor.

"What the hell are you two talking about?"

"Who told you it was Lily in that crash? The one lying in there is James!"