As the meeting ended, the leader cast me a displeased look.

“Work matters, but so does family. I don’t ever want to see today’s situation repeat itself. If this project succeeds, the position of project department director will be yours, provided no more mishaps occur.”

I nodded, agreeing to everything without hesitation.

Once he left, the strength I had been clinging to deserted me. My hand slipped from the table, and I collapsed backward, crashing into the chair before sliding to the ground.

“Millicent!” My assistant’s cry cut through the room.

I tried to wave it off and push myself up, but a stabbing pain in my lower abdomen robbed me of every ounce of energy.

Before I could utter a word, the world went dark.

The next thing I knew, violent jolts and bumps shook me awake.

And when my eyes focused on what lay ahead, I almost lost control of my expression.

My mom, together with my uncle Blake Coleman’s entire family, stood at the ER entrance, their voices echoing through the night.

“How can you call yourselves doctors? Don’t you even know how to diagnose? My daughter’s pain is in her lower abdomen; this is clearly gynecological! What does it have to do with the appendix?”

Blake shoved the doctor, his voice booming like a heavy drum.

“Don’t think I don’t see through you! You heartless doctors just want to squeeze money, claiming my niece has appendicitis, ordering piles of useless tests. When the tests show nothing, you force her to transfer! You bloodsuckers, do you find the suffering of common people so delicious?”

The doctor tried to stay calm.

“The patient’s pain is sharp and worsening in the right lower abdomen, accompanied by chills and high fever. This is a textbook case of acute appendicitis. Surgery must be performed at once.”

“Bullshit!” My Aunt Anne snapped, spitting right in the doctor’s face. “I’m a woman, I know women’s illnesses best. Millicent’s symptoms are clearly gynecological. My sister already said Millicent didn’t come home last night, so what does that mean? It means she went to a hotel with a man, got carried away, and now something down there went wrong. You think you can trick us with some appendix surgery? Dream on!”

The crowd thickened around us. My mind spun under the sharp grip of pain, but one truth rang mercilessly clear: if I didn’t give in today, even if I collapsed and died, no one would care.

With trembling fingers, I seized the doctor’s arm and whispered between gasps, “Please… help me register for gynecology.”

The bed was pushed through a long corridor. The lights above me flickered like ghosts, swimming in and out of my pain-blurred vision.

From somewhere far away, I heard my mother’s trembling voice, “Millicent, don’t be afraid. Mom won’t let anything happen to you.”

The moment her words fell, a male doctor hurried out of the gynecology office that had received the notice.

As he stepped forward to take the hospital bed, my mom suddenly raised her hand and slapped him across the face.

The doctor froze, stunned in disbelief. The nurse beside him instantly darkened her expression.

“Ma’am, why are you doing this? Why are you hitting people?”

My mom’s eyes blazed with fury as she pointed at him. “You bring a man to examine my daughter’s private parts, what kind of vile intentions do you carry?”

The doctor, as though already used to scenes like this, remained steady and answered calmly, “Ma’am, it’s the lunch hour now. I’m the only doctor available. The patient is in severe pain. I’ll only perform a simple exam first. I won’t touch her private parts.”

I no longer had any strength. Almost pleading, I clutched my mom’s sleeve so tightly that my knuckles turned white, yet no words could escape my lips.

All I wished was for a shred of mercy, any doctor would do, even a simple painkiller would have been enough.

The pain had nearly broken me.

But she only patted my hand, her eyes flashing with a strange smile I couldn’t understand.

“Millicent, don’t worry. Mom knows exactly what you want to say. Mom will never let you enter that examination room.”

The doctor, seeing me drenched in cold sweat and pale as paper, quickly motioned for the nurse to push the bed into the room.

My mom, noticing this, instantly ordered my uncle and aunt to hold the bed still, her screams echoing hysterically through the corridor.

“Everyone, come and see! This damned dog actually wants to look at my daughter’s private parts. Those are for her future husband to see. If you look, how will she ever get married? Who knows what filthy thing you’ll do in there? You want to take advantage of my daughter and still make me pay? May you die a beautiful death!”

The hallway descended into chaos, and doctors and nurses tried to push the stretcher forward while my mom and the others pulled it back.

In the midst of the quarrel, I was thrown from the stretcher, my body crumpling to the floor as I vomited a mouthful of blood that splattered across the tiles.

Everyone froze in shock.

Startled leaders of the hospital rushed over, calling urgently for several chief doctors. At last, they managed to get me, already slipping into shock, onto the operating table.

When I woke again, a full day and night had slipped away.

My mom, like a child caught in the wrong, spoke in a sickly sweet tone. “Millicent, I’m sorry. I didn’t know your condition was so serious. I thought gynecological problems were nothing but minor illnesses.”

I studied her carefully, as though seeing her for the very first time.

Behind her seemingly guilty eyes flickered smugness, satisfaction at my misfortune, and even a faint trace of irritation, irritation that I had survived.

Was she dissatisfied because I had not died?

Having brushed against the gates of hell, my voice was steady, frighteningly calm. “So, was it a gynecological disease?”

She looked at me with tearful eyes, as if she were the one who had been most grievously wronged.

“Are you blaming me? Was it wrong that I feared you’d never marry if a man looked at your private parts? Everything I did was for your own good.”

Once again, cloaked in those same words, “for my own good”, she wounded me.

And I endured, because she was the only family I had. But she never treated me as her daughter.

“Go. When I’m discharged, I’ll move out.”

She opened her mouth as if to argue, but when I buried my head beneath the quilt, she fell silent and reluctantly walked out of the ward.

Three days later, I was discharged and returned home.

The moment I stepped through the door, the living room was brimming with people.

My mom, pretending as though nothing had happened, tugged me inside.

“How could you not tell me you were discharged? I would’ve had your uncle pick you up.”

That Blake, with his battered second-hand Alto that burned through a thousand dollars in gas per kilometer, I wouldn’t dare ride in it.

My silence didn’t faze my mom. She turned cheerfully to a gaunt man seated on the sofa.

“Hayden Rodriguez, this is my daughter. Are you satisfied?”

He grinned, his cheekbones jutting sharply, his face nothing but skin stretched over bone.

My scalp prickled as I turned to my mom in shock. “Mom, what is this?”

Her eyes glinted as she answered, “You said I never cared for you? Well, I’ve found you a husband. He’s Kiersey’s friend, we know his family, and he’s gentle and reliable. With Hayden, I feel completely assured.”

“I even checked the dates; today is lucky. Forget the engagement, just marry straightaway and go to your bridal chamber.”

Gazing at his sickly gray face, I thought for an instant I must be seeing things.

“Oh, sister, look, Millicent is so happy she’s frozen in place.”

Anne picked up a wine-red wool coat, reaching to wrap it around me. I snapped back, recoiling as if a current had jolted through me.

My eyes locked on the man, his neck swollen with lumps, blotches marring his skin from throat to limbs.

Then my gaze shifted to my cousin, crouched low in the corner like a quail too frightened to move.

It struck me like lightning. My body went stiff as I turned to my mom, spitting each word like venom.

“He has AIDS, and you’re forcing me to marry him?”

Her face turned pale, but Blake charged forward, shoving me roughly. “AIDS? What nonsense! Would your mom ever harm you? If she says marry, then you’ll marry.”

“Natasha!” My whole body shook as I roared her name. “Have you lost your mind? I am your daughter. Your own blood!”

Her body trembled, her voice softening. “Millicent, Mom already asked around. AIDS patients can still live for twenty years at most. Hayden swore to me he’d take good care of you. Just stay by Kiersey’s side, won’t you? Blake has only Kiersey as a daughter. Mom can’t stand to see her left alone.”

“Millicent, what’s the point of saying so much? We’ve already got her bank cards. Once she goes off with Kiersey, no more burden. Then you can easily find yourself a second spring.”

He yanked my hand roughly, dragging me toward the room.

Hayden followed close behind like a shadow.

I clutched the doorframe, my whole body trembling, eyes burning with wrath. “Mom, you promised my dad you would protect me. If you do this, he won’t forgive you, even in the afterlife!”

My mom’s lips quivered, unease flashing faintly, yet when my cousin sobbed softly, she turned from me as if I were nothing.

Blake bound my limbs with bedsheets, then struck my cheek with a malicious pat. “You’re no different from your short-lived dad, fated to be nothing more than a stepping stone for my family. To be buried with my daughter, consider that the greatest blessing of eight lifetimes.”

Taking advantage of his arrogance, I sank my teeth deep into the tiger’s mouth of his hand, tearing away flesh.

His scream echoed, his eyes bloodshot with rage as he struck me over and over until his strength finally drained. He spat in my bloodied face and left in fury.

Hayden shed his clothes, crawling toward me with a twisted grin. “Wife, welcome to the world of AIDS.”

I couldn’t move, helpless as he tore at my clothes, tears of despair slipping silently from the corners of my eyes.

Just as despair swallowed me whole, a stern shout burst from the front door. “Police! We’ve received a report that someone here is being illegally detained.”