Watching them fight for me with everything they had, I couldn't hold back the tears burning in my eyes.

Bartholomew shrugged helplessly, his face a portrait of innocence.

"Alright, alright, I must've remembered wrong. And the rest of you—I was just joking around! You all took it way too seriously!"

Dr. Cobb let out a cold scoff and fixed my father with a glare.

"Sir, there are jokes you can make, and jokes you absolutely cannot."

"If you'd actually delayed your own son's surgery today, you'd have regretted it for the rest of your life. Fortunately, it's not too late."

From the doctor's tone, it sounded like the surgery could still proceed.

The relief had barely settled in my chest when I saw my father looking at me, letting out a long, weary sigh.

"Gerard. I raised you to be honest. To keep your word."

"Everything I said before was me giving you a chance to come clean. But you still refuse to tell the truth, so don't blame me for doing what's right—even if it means turning against my own son."

With that, he pulled out his phone. A video was already playing on the screen.

A man was on top of a woman, drenched in sweat.

Heavy, ragged breathing filled the air.

The video froze on the man's face.

It was me.

"You think being a CEO means you can cover up anything?! The woman in this video has been diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease! That's a documented fact!"

The room erupted.

Even Dr. Cobb, who had been on my side just moments ago, was furious.

His eyes held more than anger. There was disappointment.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous occupational exposure is?! If we'd gone into surgery today without knowing this, we could have been infected!"

"This is a matter of life and death! Were you trying to get us killed?!"

I stared at the video, shaking my head over and over.

"No... that can't be me!"

"It's not you?!" My father held the phone closer and closer to my face. "There was a company party a week ago. Don't tell me you weren't there!"

A company party a week ago?

The words hit me like a jolt. My head snapped up, and I looked at my sister with desperate, pleading eyes.

I hadn't gone to that party. I knew I hadn't.

That night was the night my sister had held her proposal ceremony for her boyfriend, Joshua Delgado.

She'd invited me to witness their love.

If she would just vouch for me, then—

"Cam—"

I barely got the word out before my sister turned her cold gaze on me.

"So that's what you were really doing that night, Gerard. You actually went into someone else's room."

Never. Not in a thousand years would I have imagined this.

The sister I had raised with my own hands. The sister who had just stood up for me moments ago.

She had become the blade now being driven into my chest.

Time was slipping away, second by second. Just like my life.

I looked at my sister and my father. The same faint smile curled at both their lips, perfectly synchronized.

How could I not understand now?

Every one of those so-called jokes had been nothing more than an excuse to run down the clock.

A dull, crushing ache spread through my chest, reminding me that I was running out of time.

Fine, then.

Once this surgery was over, there were certain things I would no longer bother protecting them from.

Perhaps the only person in that room who truly ached for me was my mother—the one who'd been kept in the dark all along.

She murmured the same words over and over, like a prayer.

"That's impossible... my son would never do something like that!"

Every pair of eyes in the room converged on me.

This time, I was certain.

All that remained in those stares was pure, bone-deep revulsion.

"Tch. And this guy's a CEO? Probably slept his way to the top."

"Wouldn't surprise me. Did you hear him moaning in that video? Guy became a CEO just so he could have his fun."

"Disgusting! An animal like him doesn't deserve a kidney. He deserves to die!"

In the face of all that venom crashing over me, I no longer cared.

I watched the triumph gleaming in their eyes—my father and my sister, standing side by side—and pulled out my phone.

I played a video of my own.

The footage from that night. Camila, down on one knee, proposing to Joshua.

I never could have imagined that a video I'd recorded out of pride and genuine happiness for my sister would become my lifeline.

"Dr. Cobb, please watch this."

"The timestamp on my video overlaps exactly with the timestamp on that footage. That video was clearly fabricated."

Faced with my proof, the attending physician scoffed and turned on his heel.

"Seems like your whole family enjoys playing games!" He didn't look back. "I don't care whether you're infected or not. I won't perform this surgery. I can't perform it."

He walked out.

I looked at Dr. Cobb, who had stayed behind.

I pulled up the electronic agreement I'd had my lawyer draft before any of this started.

"Dr. Cobb, I know that nothing I say carries weight anymore."

I glanced at Camila and my father. Not a second of hesitation.

"I'm willing to put up half the shares of my company as collateral. If the post-operative results show any trace of infection, half of Harmony Corp is yours."

The moment the words left my mouth, the smugness drained from my father's face.

I knew that expression all too well.

Whenever his little jokes failed to achieve their purpose, the mask slipped, and what remained underneath was bone-deep hatred.

He glared at me.

Then at the agreement on the screen.

Dr. Cobb let out a long breath and nodded.

"I'll do the surgery."

But when the nurse opened the cooler that was supposed to hold the donor kidney, she screamed.

She stumbled backward, nearly falling over herself as she scrambled toward the doctor. Her face was white as paper, and her voice wouldn't stop shaking.

"D-Dr. Cobb..."

"The kidney is gone!"