Sadie's POV

"Tell me who the real father is, or I'll use this bastard's heart to save someone else."

That was what my husband of seven years said as he tied our six-year-old son to an operating table and drained 800ml of his blood.

My son’s face had gone ghostly pale. Tears filled his eyes as he looked up at his father, silently begging for mercy.

“Daddy… I’m so cold…”

But Denton Francis didn’t even blink. He even coldly said, “Keep going.”

He didn’t want to see the boy cry, so he injected him with a high dose of anesthesia, knocking him unconscious.

I sobbed and begged him to stop. But all I got in return was a look of pure disgust.

“That child isn’t mine,” he snapped. “I ran a test. You were already pregnant when you married me.”

Then he walked away without a second thought to buy a birthday gift for the woman he truly loved, Melanie Conner.

By the time I rushed back to the hospital, my son’s blood was drained, and his heart had been cut out. All that was left of him was a handful of ashes.

On the way home, shattered with grief, I was hit by a car going the wrong way.

When I woke up, the doctor told me I had been three months pregnant, but I’d lost the baby.

In seven years of marriage, two lives were already lost, and I was also injured.

I wiped my tears, telling myself I’d throw everything into my career, only to find out my assets were already transferred to Melanie's name.

Even the savings I set aside for the kids were gone. He tricked me into signing them over under the guise of charity, only for Melanie's daughter to benefit.

I stared at my son’s ashes and the smug look on Melanie’s face.

Then I made a call.

“Grandma, I’ve changed my mind. I’m coming back in ten days. I’ll help you with our family business.”

They took everything from me. Now, they’d pay double.

My career. My pain. My loss.

In ten days, they’d find out what happened when you crossed a genius programmer and the heir to the world’s largest business empire.

“You should’ve known,” Denton said coldly, sitting outside the operating room, smoke curling from his lips. “From the moment you lied to me, this bastard child was never going to make it out alive.”

I tried to make out my son, Mick Francis, strapped to the surgical table, but the screen was too blurry. All I could see was the bright red blood draining from his little body, filling two already swollen blood bags.

Tears streamed down my face, bitter as they reached my lips.

Denton knew Mick was born premature. He knew our boy had always been weak, needing monthly serum therapy and specialized nutrition just to survive to age five.

How could his small body withstand that much blood loss?

He was already pale as death. His breathing, once shallow and quick, was now slow and almost gone.

“Please… don’t do this to him,” I choked, trying to steady my voice. “Mick is just a child. Denton, whatever happened between us, don’t take it out on the child.”

He exhaled smoke, his eyes colder than before.

Then he raised two fingers, and the monitor suddenly zoomed in. Only then did I see Mick’s pale face, and he saw me too.

His lips trembled, barely moving.

“M…mom… I'm cold…”

“Don’t be afraid, baby. Mommy’s coming to take you home.”

My vision blurred with tears as I spoke those words. A screech of brakes rang in my ears as I slammed my car to a stop in the middle of the road. Horns blared and curses flew, but I didn’t care.

Nothing mattered more than Mick.

"Only 200ml left until he hits his limit. Still won’t talk?" Denton threatened.

Irritated with the constant question, I barked, “What do you want me to say?!”

“Where did you take Melanie’s daughter?” he insisted again.

That name again. That woman again.

His first love, the woman he’d loved for eighteen years. Ever since she came back with a daughter last year, my life had been turned upside down.

I should’ve known she was behind all of this.

“I don’t know! Just stop it! Mick will die! Stop this, I beg you. He’s your son, too. How can you do this?"

"You kidnapped Jewel. And now you're pretending you're innocent? And besides, you know better than anyone that Mick might not be my child. You were already pregnant when you married me. But fine. Tell me who the father is, and maybe I’ll spare this little bastard’s life. Otherwise, his heart goes to Jewel.”

I was racing up the hospital stairs to the top floor, eyes locked on Denton’s merciless face.

Word by word, I shouted, “I swear, I never touched Melanie’s daughter!”

Seemingly not hearing anything, he said, “150ml.”

“Daddy… Daddy, I’m cold. I want Mommy. I wanna go home…”

Mick's voice was soft, frail. On the corner of the screen, I saw him trying to lift himself up, his last act of resistance before the end. But it was so weak and hopeless.

Even so, Denton didn’t flinch.

“Too noisy,” he muttered. “Give him another shot. Put him out.”

Just like that, Mick’s small hand, fluttering in the air, dropped.

“Mick!” I shrieked.

“100ml,” Denton said, then grabbed me by the arm and slammed my face against the glass wall of the surgery room. “Take a good look, Sadie. This is what happens to the bastard you gave birth to.”

He sneered. “To be honest, Mick was a good kid. Sweet. Smart. His only curse was having a venomous, filthy woman like you as his mother.”

“50ml. Still not talking?” he whispered heavily in my ear.

Sadie's POV

Powerless, I dropped to my knees in front of him and begged him in the most humiliating way possible.

But his hand only clamped around my jaw like a steel trap, his teeth grinding in fury.

“If you want that little bastard to live, then tell me where the hell you took Jewel?”

“I don’t know! I swear I don’t know, please,” I answered truthfully, begging.

Yet a loud slap exploded across my face. My left cheek burned, and all I could hear was a high-pitched ringing in my ear.

“You liar!” he spat. “Surveillance from the kindergarten shows a woman dressed exactly like you taking her into a car. Her name tag was also found outside your bedroom. And you’re still pretending you’re innocent?”

I shook my head desperately, tears flying. “It wasn’t me! I swear, it wasn’t!”

I then turned my head and saw Mick’s tiny chest rising slower and slower.

Panicked, I pushed myself up and rushed toward the operating room.

“Mick! Don’t be scared. Mommy’s taking you home.”

I cradled his ice-cold body in my arms, whispering that same sentence over and over like a prayer.

He was still wearing the soccer jersey of Denton’s favorite team. I gently kissed his pale little cheek, and my warm tears fell on his soft skin.

Just yesterday morning, Denton had him perched on his shoulders, playing pretend knights.

But now, Denton coldly said, “He’s not my son. Melanie showed me your old pregnancy records. You were already pregnant before we got married. And that kid isn’t premature; he was full-term. You just made up that whole preemie lie to cover up your past.”

His words hit harder than any slap. For a moment, I forgot to cry.

Every accusation, about kidnapping Melanie’s daughter, about Mick’s parentage, was a lie. All of it.

Three months ago, I had been carefully planning our anniversary trip. I even booked two tickets to Paris.

Yet he never showed up.

Mick and I waited outside Disneyland the entire night. But only the fireworks lighting up the empty sky accompanied us.

I still remember, I was wearing the same outfit shown in that kindergarten footage. But the next morning, I was mugged on the street and lost the entire outfit while protecting Mick.

When I finally got home, he wasn’t there either.

Later that night, I saw him on Melanie’s Instagram. That same cold man I married was smiling under the Paris night sky, with the Eiffel Tower glowing behind him.

That was when I realized he had chosen Melanie over me.

But we were in love once because Mick was the proof of that.

Seven years ago, Denton was a powerful and feared genius in both the legal and underground business world, while I was just a broke computer science student, bartending to pay my tuition.

He claimed it was love at first sight.

Every day, he brought me gifts and begged me to marry him. I rejected him 99 times because I knew deep down, we were from two very different worlds.

I wasn’t worthy of his billion-dollar life. And more importantly, I didn’t want to live a life tied to blood and darkness.

Until one night, I was drugged, and he showed up and saved me. He held me as he cried, apologizing over and over. For seven days straight, he publicly announced he was cutting ties with the underground world just to convince me he could give me a simple, happy life.

When Mick was born prematurely, I watched him cry as he stood over the incubator. He swore he’d protect us, no matter what. He even said he’d give his own life to save our son.

Back then, he was the perfect husband and father.

But everything started to fall apart the day Melanie returned.

She weaseled her way into every part of our lives. She made Denton used to missing all our important moments. She planted the idea that Mick wasn’t his child. She even twisted the story of Denton’s father’s accidental death, blaming me.

And the most terrifying part was that he believed her.

I once offered to divorce him. I thought maybe, just maybe, we could part ways peacefully.

But he only wrapped a strand of my hair around his finger, smiling softly. His voice slithered like a snake against my ear.

“Darling, did you really think you could fool me and walk away unscathed? A blood debt must be paid in blood. Isn’t that right?”

Sadie's POV

So now, he was really going to drain his own son’s blood?

The irony was almost too much to bear.

To make matters worse, I came too late.

Mick’s body was already growing cold, and his heartbeat was so faint I could barely feel it.

At this point, there was no room left for arguing. Nothing I said would matter anymore. All I wanted now was for my son to live.

I picked Mick up and ran for the door, but Denton’s tall frame blocked my path.

“If you want to save him,” he said, “then tell me where you hide Jewel.”

I glanced up at him, but said nothing. Instead, I bit my lip and kept my head low, quickly scanning for any possible escape route.

Just then, one of his men burst into the room.

“Boss, we found her,” he reported, shooting me a quick glance. “Miss Jewel was discovered at an abandoned warehouse. Looks like she fainted from the shock.”

Without warning, Denton kicked at me and roared, “You tried to kill her!”

I instinctively wrapped my arms tighter around Mick to protect him. But the force of the kick knocked me to the floor, and my knees slammed hard into the cold tile. The thud echoed through the room.

Then I felt a rush of wind behind me, a fist, maybe, but it stopped just an inch away from my body.

“I’m gonna bring Jewel home first,” he growled. “If she’s missing so much as a strand of hair, I’ll carve out that bastard’s heart and give it to her as a transplant.”

With that, he stormed out.

Seizing the chance, I scrambled to my feet and ran with Mick in my arms, heading straight for my car.

Even though we were in a hospital, I knew better than to trust this place as it belonged to Denton. If they had no problem draining a six-year-old of his blood, I wasn’t about to risk what they’d do next.

Looking down at my son's pale face, almost looking see-through, my whole body trembled. It took everything I had to force the key into the ignition and start the engine.

“Grandma, please, help me. Help Mick.”

My voice was broken and shaky, the sobs making it hard to speak.

“Sadie? Is that you, sweetheart? What’s wrong?” Her voice, warm and full of worry, was the first comforting thing I’d felt in days. Maybe even years.

Three years ago, I received a letter out of the blue. A suicide letter from my birth mother I had lost touch with for eighteen years. She wrote there that I wasn’t an orphan and still had a family, which was my grandmother.

Using the contact information in the letter, I found her.

For the first time, someone other than Denton made me feel loved.

When Melanie first came into our lives, I wrote to my grandmother. She offered to come and take me home. But I said no.

Because back then, Denton still gently tapped my nose and told me, “Silly girl. You and Mick are the two people I love most in this world. I’d give my life to protect you.”

So I believed him.

I gave up my career, turned down my grandmother’s offer to join the family business, and silently helped Denton behind the scenes, managing his affairs and cleaning up his messes.

And now, he wants me and Mick dead.

“Sadie, don’t panic,” Grandma said softly. “Just tell me what you need. I’ll make it happen.”

“I need the best medical team. Mick has lost too much blood. He doesn’t have much time. Also, I want new identities. For both of us. I can’t live like this anymore.”

With no hesitation, Grandma readily agreed, “Alright, Sadie. The best medical team in the world will be in place in three minutes. And I’ll have new identities for you and Mick within seven days.”

“Thanks, Grandma,” I whispered. “Please take me home in seven days as well. I’m ready to take over the family business.”

With that, I ended the call and leaned down to kiss Mick’s cheek. His skin was so pale that it broke my heart all over again, and tears spilled freely from my eyes.

“Just hang in there, Mick. Seven more days. After that, everything will be over. Mommy won’t let anyone hurt you ever again.”