Dr. Lowry was furious with her answer. He was about to argue with her when he heard a man speaking coyly, "Rebecca, Hayden would never joke around with another person's life, no matter how much he hates me. It'd be a horrible and inhumane thing to do. We should go to the hospital to take a look.

"It would be uncomfortable for me, but Hayden's issue is much more pressing than mine."

Rebecca immediately softened her tone to comfort Simon. "You're the one I'm most concerned about, Simon. Hayden spends his days creating trouble for us. Who knows what he's scheming right now?"

Every nurse who heard the conversation rolled their eyes, while all I felt was frustration. My mother-in-law had always taken good care of me since Rebecca and I got together, and I truly wanted her to be all right.

I was not interested in getting involved with her lovey-dovey relationship with Simon, and after a few rounds of argument, Rebecca finally agreed to come to the hospital.

Dr. Lowry was clearly relieved as he reminded her to hurry up, as there was still time to save her mother, but I knew that Dr. Lowry was too optimistic about this.

In my past lifetime, I was hopeful about Rebecca helping her mother because Simon's home was less than five minutes away from the hospital. However, 30 minutes had passed, and Rebecca was still nowhere to be seen.

Dr. Lowry called her in a panic, but Rebecca only sounded annoyed. "Simon doesn't feel well, and I'm bringing him some soup. It's just a little more than 10 minutes. Is this such an emergency? Aren't you a doctor? Don't you know that a patient comes first? Simon is sick!

"I've already given you a huge compromise by playing along with Hayden's act. You people need to know where to draw a line, and have some sense about what's more important!"

She hung up right after that.

Dr. Lowry tried to call her again, but Rebecca had blocked his number.

That was when we heard my mother-in-law howling in pain from the surgery room. Dr. Lowry came to an immediate decision. "We can't wait any longer. Let's have the surgery first and sign the document later!"

Everything happened just as it did in my past lifetime. My mother-in-law needed blood halfway through the surgery, and I started to break out in cold sweat from panicking. Fortunately, the community staff called, "We've managed to get in touch with a blood donor, Mr. Lane. He's on his way to the hospital right now."

I went downstairs right away to meet the donor. Rebecca and Simon entered the hospital at the same time I found the donor. Rebecca was quite annoyed when she arrived at the hospital, but she gave pause when she saw how pale I was.

Simon looked surprised. "It's one thing to curse Mrs. Chilton just to grab Rebecca's attention, but I can't believe you went as far as to waste a kind person's time, Hayden."

The man who was here to help frowned when he heard the conversation and looked like he wanted to yell at somebody. I knew none of them would listen to my explanation, so I showed them Jack's medical report that indicated my mother-in-law was in critical condition.

"I'm not lying. Your mother is seriously injured and needs blood!"

Simon took the document and glanced at it, only to shake his head confidently. "This is forged. I'm always at the hospital with a prescription, and I know everything here well. The stamp on this document isn't legitimate."

Rebecca frowned right away. "I can't believe you're using hospital resources just because you're jealous, Hayden. You're just a selfish, narcissistic bastard!"

I was in a fluster, and I pushed every piece of evidence I had into the blood donor's arms, pleading for him to judge the situation for himself. After that, I lowered my head to text my father-in-law about what just happened to get him to rush to the hospital to handle this.

However, Simon started putting on an act when I ignored him. "I'm sorry, Hayden. Don't be mad at me for telling the truth. I didn't want to ruin your plan, but it worries me that Rebecca thought something happened to her mother.

"I feel really bad about this. Ah, it hurts, Rebecca. I think I'm relapsing…"

Rebecca got even more enraged. She dashed toward me to grab my arm and pushed me hard to the ground. "You're a disgusting, malicious bastard, Hayden! How dare you curse my family just to grab my attention and agitate Simon! I want you to get on your knees to apologize to him! He wouldn't be here, suffering a relapse, if you weren't that desperate to have a woman with you."

I lost my balance and fell hard onto the ground. My waist slammed into a steel chair at the side, and it hurt so much that I broke out in a cold sweat.

Rebecca suddenly looked a little worried when she saw the pain on my face. "What's wrong with you, Hayden?"

When Simon noticed this, he suddenly went crazy. "This is all my fault. All I wanted was for Rebecca to bring me some medication to save my life because I was feeling terrible. I have no idea what I did wrong. All I want is to continue living. Why did you get so many people to put up this act, Hayden? Why do you want me dead?

"I checked with my doctor on the way here, and he told me there isn't any patient here with cerebral haemorrhage. You just wanted us at the hospital so that Mrs. Chilton could yell at me for being the third party in your marriage, but the truth is, I only see Rebecca as my sister.

"Please let me off, Hayden! If you continue forcing me like this, I will die!"

With that, Simon turned to run out the door.

Rebecca was distracted by him, and she ran after Simon to hug him gently in her arms. "Don't worry, Simon. Hayden can never bully you with me around. Let's go!"

The nurse next to us rolled her eyes and passed Rebecca the consent form. "Wait a minute. Please sign this."

Rebecca did not even glance at the form. She quickly signed the papers and left with Simon. Whatever her actions were did not concern me because the most important thing was to save my mother-in-law.

I led the donor toward the surgery room while still in pain, and when we reached the corridor, the nurse rushed over to me. "The patient is in critical condition. We need to go give her blood now!"

Fear enveloped me, and when the donor witnessed the emergency, he knew right away that Simon was lying. He pulled up his sleeve and made to follow the nurse. "I'm ready. You can take my blood right now!"

However, it was still too late. The doors to the surgery room opened, and Jack walked out the door to shake his head apologetically at us. "I'm so sorry. The patient was not in a healthy condition to begin with, and we weren't able to resuscitate her. We've done our best."

I fell on my knees while gripping my phone, unable to say another word.

My mother-in-law's body was wheeled out, and Jack stood at the side to sign the death certificate. My eyes were filled with tears as I stared at the white cloth over her body. That was when it truly hit me that the benevolent old lady who always cared for me would never wake up again. I failed to save her life even after getting reborn.

After I was done with handling all procedures, I sat outside the morgue, waiting for my father-in-law. That was when my phone rang. Rebecca had unblocked my number and was being aloof with me. "Why isn't my mother picking up her phone, Hayden? Ask her how I should make chicken noodle soup."

I wiped away my tears and said coldly, "The surgery was a failure. Mom's gone."

"Are you still putting on this act? How annoying can you be?!" Rebecca could no longer hold back her temper, and she yelled at me.

"Don't you dare cross the line with me, Hayden!" She hung up after that.

I took a picture of the morgue and sent it to her. [You should come over right now if you want to see Mom one last time.]

However, my message was ignored.

…

The next day, I went home, exhausted, before dawn, with my mother-in-law's funeral portrait and documents. When Rebecca heard me coming home, she walked out of the room. She frowned when she saw me.

Before any one of us said anything, she saw the portrait and saw that I was wearing black, which enraged her. She walked up to me and slapped me hard. "You're pushing it, Hayden. How could you order a funeral portrait of my mother just for your little performance? My family doesn't need a traitor like you. Get out!"

Rebecca pushed me out the door, and I hit my waist against the railing of the stairs, causing me intense pain. I inhaled sharply and fell right down the stairs when I lost my footing.