My mom was in the middle of heart bypass surgery. Her chest had just been opened,

when the lead surgeon took a phone call and tried to walk out with every last member of the medical team.

His face was frantic, his eyes wide with fear.

"Ma'am, Mr. Delgado's secretary, Miss Simmons, is hemorrhaging. He says we have to get over there right now!"

I slapped him across the face.

"The Winfield family has supported you for years. Was it so you could go pledge your loyalty to Alfred Delgado?!"

Only then did the doctor stay and finish the operation.

That evening, Alfred came to the recovery room to check on my mom, and the second he saw me, he blew up.

"Shelagh Winfield, Scarlett Simmons's pregnant and she was hemorrhaging. Why wouldn't you let the doctor go? Do you have any idea? She almost lost the baby just now!"

"I really never saw it before. How did you turn into someone this vicious!"

I grabbed Alfred by the tie, glaring at him, my teeth clenched as I demanded an answer.

"My mom's chest was wide open, and you told the lead surgeon to leave. Alfred, where's your brain? Where's your heart?!"

"She's a pregnant woman. If something's wrong, she goes to obstetrics. What does she need my mom's surgeon for? Were you trying to kill my mother?!"

Alfred backed off and slid into a fawning smile.

"All right, all right, it was just a joke. My fault."

Then he left.

I thought it was over.

But the moment I left the hospital that night, I got a call from the lead surgeon.

"Ma'am, Mr. Delgado wheeled your mother out of the ICU. I'm afraid the old lady won't make it!"

I rushed back like a madwoman.

I saw my mom in the hospital lobby, gasping hard for air, while Alfred and Scarlett laughed like they'd lost their minds.

I dialed the encrypted phone that had been placed in my hands only ten days ago.

"Dad, please come home…"

——

The call had barely ended

when Alfred snatched the phone out of my hand.

He glanced at the bulky, old-fashioned model in his palm and let out a grating sneer.

"Shelagh, your brain really must be broken. A two-digit phone number. Who do you think you're scaring, some idiot?!"

"That perfect, oh-so-wonderful father of yours, the one who loved you and your mom so much, fell into the ocean ten days ago when his plane went down. He's shark food by now! What's the point of putting on this act?!"

The instant Alfred finished,

a burst of laughter rose up behind him.

"Enough, Ms. Winfield, get your head straight. Ten days ago, the second your dad went splash into the sea, you Winfields became a pack of strays!"

"Stop putting on those airs like you're still the heiress. You're upsetting our Alfred…"

He cast a glance at the hospital bed behind him.

"And your mom's the one who suffers for it!"

The words had barely left his mouth when a ragged, wheezing sound came from the bed behind him.

I lunged forward two steps and shoved him aside.

My mom's chest was heaving violently, and even as she fought for every breath, her face was still blue.

My heart shot up into my throat. I spun to face the doctor standing off to the side.

"Who wheeled my mother out here?!"

"Get her back into the recovery room, now!"

Dr. Finch, the surgeon who'd operated on my mom, watched her and a flash of panic crossed his eyes.

He was about to step forward and wheel her away,

when Alfred kicked out at him, gripping the bed frame and roaring,

"I'd like to see who dares move her today!"

I stared at Alfred, my eyes full of disbelief.

"What do you mean by that?!"

"Can't you see my mom is in distress?! She just had bypass surgery. Rapid, labored breathing could kill her! Move!"

I shoved Alfred aside and stepped up to wheel my mom away,

but before my hands could even touch the bed,

Alfred wrenched me away from her.

"Shelagh, your mother's life is in danger and only now you panic?!"

"When Scarlett's life was in danger, how could you just stand by and let her die?!"

I looked at Alfred, my eyes cold.

"I didn't let anyone die."

"She's pregnant. If she was in trouble, she should have gone to the obstetrics ward, not gone after the surgeon in the middle of operating on my mother. Even if he'd gone, he couldn't have saved her. That's a sick, twisted thing to demand!"

With that, I shoved Alfred aside and rushed to my mother.

But the moment my hand touched her cold wrist,

Alfred's hand clamped around my throat.

He glared at me, eyes bloodshot, grinding the words out through his teeth.

"You're the sick, twisted one! Scarlett was frantic. How was she supposed to tell one ward from another! And you, you wouldn't even spare a single nurse. I think you're just jealous that Scarlett gets to be a mother! You can't have children yourself, so whose fault is that!"

"Ever since that thing happened five years ago, something in you went warped! You turned into a freak! It's disgusting!"

Alfred's words struck me like a clap of thunder.

Five years ago, Alfred had been escorting a shipment back to the city when he was seized along the way by criminals.

I went alone to save him, and someone drove a knife into my womb.

After that, I could barely hope to conceive.

Back then I offered to break it off, but Alfred knelt outside the hospital room, knelt for a full day and night.

He said that for the rest of his life he would never bring up having children in front of me, or he'd live in poverty and die a wretched death.

And it had only been five years…

Alfred seemed to realize he'd said the wrong thing.

A trace of guilt surfaced in his eyes, and he was about to speak again,

when Scarlett, clutching her belly, let out a tearful little whimper.

"Forget it, Alfred, just hurry and take Shelagh's mother back. They're born to wealth, they're worth so much more than the two of us, my baby and me. Even if Shelagh deliberately killed the child in my belly, I wouldn't dare say a word. Besides, Shelagh said she didn't do it on purpose. If she says so, I believe her…"

Deliberately killed?!

Whether she was even pregnant, or what she was carrying, I didn't care in the slightest!

Because just yesterday,

I had found out I was pregnant.

The doctor had wept with joy, saying my sincerity must have moved the heavens for such a miracle to happen.

I was about to open my mouth and tell Alfred the news,

but his face had already changed.

He pointed at my mother's bed and gave the order in a vicious tone.

"Take the old woman off the ventilator!"

"Shelagh, today I'm going to make you taste what it's like to lose someone you love too!"

The moment Alfred finished, the man standing beside my mother ripped the ventilator away.

In almost the space of a blink,

my mother's face went blue,

her fingers clawing hard into her palms, and soon thin threads of blood trickled down from them.

"Alfred, have you lost your mind?!"

I lunged toward my mother's bed like a madwoman,

but Alfred seized my wrist in an iron grip and shoved me to the floor.

He slid an arm around Scarlett's waist and bent down to look at me.

"Shelagh, apologize to Scarlett, or your mother won't be going back to her room today."

Great gasping breaths kept coming from the bed,

my mother's face already turning gray,

and I grabbed Alfred's wrist, my voice shaking.

"Alfred, take my mother back to her room now. When my father left, you promised him you'd take good care of her, take good care of me. It's only been ten days! If he found out…"

"Don't talk to me about your father!"

Alfred cut me off sharply.

"Your father is dead! Stop trying to scare me with him!"

"Today, if you don't apologize to Scarlett, you can stand right here and watch your mother die in front of your eyes!"

I stared at Alfred, unable to believe what I was hearing.

Ten days ago, Alfred had been the man who loved me most,

the son-in-law who'd lost his parents young and had treated my mother like his own all these years,

the one who'd stayed up night after night, tracking down specialist after specialist overseas to settle on my mother's treatment plan,

who'd knelt in the private chapel day after day before her surgery, praying she'd come through it safe.

And yet now,

with my father only ten days in his grave,

he was throwing my mother's life away for the sake of a woman like that.

"What are you waiting for! Apologize!"

Alfred's roar cut through my thoughts.

"Alfred, why should I?! What have I done wrong?!"

"I made sure my mother's surgery went smoothly. I wouldn't let the lead surgeon walk out on her. What's wrong with that?!"

Something I couldn't read flickered in his eyes.

But before he could speak,

"Let it go, Alfred…"

Scarlett stepped forward and slipped her arm through his,

"Just send Shelagh's mother back to her room. I'm really scared. I'm careful every single day, but I still keep making Shelagh angry. If something really happens to her mother, I'm afraid I won't be able to keep my own life…"

In an instant the look in his eyes melted into tenderness,

he pulled Scarlett into his arms, his voice so gentle it could have dripped,

"Don't be afraid, Scarlett. Today I'll get justice for you, no matter what."

With that, he turned a cold gaze on my mother in the hospital bed and spoke each word slowly,

"Press that blanket down over the old woman's head!"

"Let's see just how long you can keep up this tough act, you devoted daughter!"

The moment the words left his mouth, Dr. Finch's expression changed.

He grabbed the hands reaching to lay the blanket over my mother's head and looked at Alfred, his face grave,

"Mr. Delgado, the old lady just came out of surgery. She's extremely weak. If you keep this up, someone is going to die."

Alfred raised a hand to cut him off,

"The heart transplant specialist from overseas is standing by in the operating room right now. Nothing's going to go wrong. Keep your mouth shut!"

Hearing that,

Dr. Finch had nothing more he could say.

Slowly he let go of the hands he'd been holding back.

The instant he released them,

the man at the bedside folded the blanket into three layers and slammed it down over my mother's head.

In a flash, a frantic, muffled whimpering came from beneath the blanket,

my mother's legs and arms thrashing violently without stop,

her palms, already rubbed raw, clawing at the white sheets and leaving streak after streak of horrifying blood.

I came completely apart and threw myself at her bed like a madwoman,

Alfred wrenched me off and growled low through clenched teeth,

"Shelagh. Apologize."

My mother's struggling grew weaker and weaker,

I slid helplessly to the floor, looked up at Scarlett, and forced the words out through gritted teeth,

"I'm sorry."

Scarlett cupped her faintly swollen belly, tears spilling down all at once,

she shrank back into Alfred's arms and spoke in a small, wronged voice,

"Alfred, that apology didn't sound the least bit sincere to me."

Alfred's cold eyes swung to me,

"You hear that? Scarlett says it wasn't sincere. On your knees and do it again!"

Her sharp nails had long since torn open my palms,

I gripped my mother's icy hand, clenched my teeth, and knelt in front of Scarlett,

"I'm sorry."

The words had barely left me, and just as Alfred was about to speak,

a tearful little whimper came from behind me,

"Alfred, I still don't think it's sincere enough…"

Alfred went still, then gently gathered Scarlett into his arms,