Adrienne’s words seemed to be helping Heidi, but in reality, they were a cruel reminder of the humiliation Calvin suffered when his ex-wife dumped him years ago.

His anger turned icy, and he let out a cold snort. “A despicable miser like you isn’t worthy of my money! Tell the manager here—I don’t ever want to see this woman here again!”

With that, he wrapped his arm around Adrienne and returned to the private room, slamming the door shut behind him.

It was strange—Heidi’s vision had long since blurred, yet she could still see clearly the disgust in Calvin’s eyes as he turned away and the smug satisfaction at the corner of Adrienne’s lips.

A sharp, suffocating pain spread through Heidi’s chest. She clutched the spot over her heart, her face contorted in agony. Lifting her gaze toward the closed door, her surroundings gradually faded into a blur.

Her trembling fingers brushed against the corners of her eyes, where pain had resided for five long years. When she saw the crimson tears of blood on her fingertips, she couldn’t help but let out a bitter smile.

‘Calvin still doesn’t know.’

The eyes he used to gaze so tenderly at another woman—were Heidi’s.

Five years ago, his vision had been deteriorating due to a lack of funds and a suitable cornea until he was nearly blind. His mental state declined along with it, leaving him dispirited and broken.

That was when his mother came to Heidi.

Years ago, Calvin had cut ties with his family for her. Now, Rosalie wanted Heidi to sever ties with him.

The reason? Money and a cornea.

Thinking of Calvin’s vacant, lifeless eyes, Heidi agreed. But she still insisted on giving him her own cornea.

The Rosenbachs had money—they could afford an artificial cornea without issue. But that would only last for so long.

A donor cornea could work too, but it would take time.

Once she left, Calvin wouldn’t wait. He might even spiral out of control.

So, his mother agreed.

Once a match was confirmed, Heidi had her cornea transplanted to him.

As for herself, she got a pair of artificial corneas—the cheapest kind, to save money.

For the first two years, her vision was no different from a normal person’s. But by the third year, she was diagnosed with eye cancer.

By the time she found out, it was already too late. The cancer cells had affected the artificial corneas, subjecting her to relentless, excruciating pain day and night—along with the agony of impending blindness.

Three whole years. Over a thousand days and nights.

The world before her eyes grew dimmer and blurrier with each passing day.

She knew that whether it was her life or her vision, she was already at her limit.

After leaving the bar, Heidi went to the hospital.

“You can’t keep taking painkillers. You’ve had more than enough over the years.”

The person scolding her was Sharon Sumners, Heidi’s best friend and her attending physician.

Seeing the concern on her face, Heidi gave Sharon a reassuring smile.

“It’s fine. I’ve already taken so many—what difference do a few more make?”

Sharon rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Fine, forget the painkillers. But what about alcohol? How many times have I told you—you can’t drink! Heidi, the cancer has already spread to your stomach. Drinking could literally kill you!”

‘Kill me? Of course, I knew that. But I desperately needed money—not just for myself but for my son.’

At the thought of her child, she quickly asked, anxious, “Right, how’s Tommie? Did he eat today?”

“Don’t worry, Tommie is very well-behaved. Today is New Year’s Eve, so I brought him black-eyed peas and cornbread. He ate them happily. But we still need to find a matching bone marrow donor as soon as possible. Otherwise… he might not make it through the year.

“It’s a pity Calvin wasn’t a match. Otherwise… your son wouldn’t have had to suffer for so long. Some father he is—ugh, completely useless!”

Sharon’s voice was full of anger and frustration, but Heidi only curled her lips into a bitter smile.

After donating her cornea to Calvin, Heidi discovered that she was pregnant.

At the time, she felt both excitement and fear—excited that she finally had a family member by her side, but terrified that the surgery might affect her baby.

She spent a long time in anxious uncertainty, but in the end, fate was cruel to her.

The year she was diagnosed with eye cancer, Tommie was also diagnosed with leukemia.

She once went to Rosalie and begged for bone marrow. To keep it from Calvin, they secretly did a compatibility test.

Unfortunately, it failed.

Rosalie then cut off all contact with Heidi and Tommie.

Without money and without a matching donor, Tommie’s illness kept dragging on.

It had been three years.

Tommie couldn’t hold on any longer.

“Besides bone marrow, is there any other way to save Tommie?”

Sharon thought for a moment. “There is—umbilical cord blood. But unless you can have another child with Calvin, the chances are still very slim.”

‘A child… it isn’t impossible!’

As Heidi was lost in thought, the sound of a child crying suddenly came from outside.

‘It’s Tommie!’

Her heart tightened, and she rushed over. When she got closer, she saw Adrienne hitting Tommie—while Calvin just stood there.

“Tommie! Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I-I-I’m fine, Mom. Don’t worry.”

From the moment he was born, her son had always been well-behaved. She didn’t know who he took after, but he had never given her any trouble.

Now, even with his little face red and swollen, tears still in his eyes, he was comforting her.

Heidi’s heart ached. She couldn’t help but hold her son tightly in her arms.

“Heidi, this… is your son?”

She looked at Calvin. A thousand words rose to her lips, but in the end, only one came out.

“Yeah.”

That single word ignited Calvin’s fury.

Just moments ago, when he saw Adrienne hitting the child, he had been angry and rushed over to stop her.

But he never expected that this child was Heidi’s!

She had really betrayed their love.

She had really been with another man.

Adrienne, watching the mother and son embrace, had a triumphant and calculating look in her eyes.

“Vin, it’s my fault. I was just startled by the child and acted out of panic.

“I didn’t know he was Miss Twigg’s son. I’m really sorry.”

As she spoke, Adrienne stepped forward, crouched down, and took Tommie’s hand.

“Miss Twigg, your son is really adorable. He looks about four or five years old, right? That means you had him the same year you and Vin divorced.

“This boy… could he be Vin’s?”

Back then, after agreeing to Rosalie’s request, Heidi pretended to be materialistic and greedy. She had handed over the divorce papers herself.

She and Calvin had spent seven years together. He had been willing to give up his privileged life for her, and she had been willing to endure hardship with him.

At their happiest moments, they had dreamed about what their child would look like. They had even imagined the life of a happy family of three.

At first, Calvin refused to believe she had fallen out of love. He even tore up the divorce papers with his own hands.

But to save him, Heidi had used the cruelest words.

She told him that she had only agreed to be with him for money and had stayed through the hardships because she believed he would one day return to the Rosenbachs.

She told him that now, as a blind man, the Rosenbachs would never take him back, and she didn’t want to spend her life with a blind man either.

She told him that she had found another man—one who was richer, one who promised to give her the best of everything, one who could make her dream of marrying into a wealthy family come true.

That day, she saw despair on the face of the man she had loved for years. With trembling hands and tear-filled eyes, he wrote down his name.

Watching the tears blur the ink, Heidi wept silently as well.

But Calvin never saw it.

His contemptuous gaze landed on Tommie’s pale little face, and the words he spoke were like knives stabbing into Heidi’s heart.

“I must have been blind to have a child with her.

“Just a bastard. How could he have anything to do with me?”

The last shred of hope in Heidi’s heart finally died. The explanation she had wanted to give turned into a bitter, self-mocking smile.

Now, they truly were a family of three.

But they could never stand beside Calvin again.

Seeing the hatred and disgust on his face, a wave of sorrow and pain surged through Heidi’s heart.

“Tommie, let’s go.”

Supporting her son with difficulty, Heidi was just about to leave when Calvin spoke again.

“Your son hit my fiancée, and you think you can just walk away? Don’t forget, this hospital bears the Rosenbachs name. If a patient can’t pay their medical bills, isn’t it only natural for the hospital to throw them out?”

Heidi looked up at him in shock. She knew he hated her, but she never imagined he would go this far for revenge—resorting to such despicable means.

Adrienne clung to Calvin’s arm, her voice coy yet pleading. “Vin, forget it. No matter what Miss Twigg did, she was once your wife. Yes, she wronged you in the past, but… but you wouldn’t really make her kneel and apologize to me, would you?”

Calvin affectionately tapped her nose. “You’re my precious girl. So what if she kneels? So what if she apologizes? No matter what she does, you deserve it.”

Heidi looked up at her ex in disbelief. In the end, she couldn’t hold back and choked out, “Calvin, are you really asking me to kneel and apologize to her?”

Deliberately ignoring the pain in her eyes, Calvin sneered. “You can refuse. But from today on, your son doesn’t need to stay in this hospital anymore.”

“Fine, I’ll kneel.”

For her son, Heidi chose to submit.

After her parents died, she grew up in an orphanage. No matter how hard, how painful, or how unbearable life was, she had never knelt before anyone.

She was proud. She was stubborn.

Back then, Calvin had loved her precisely for that.

But now, she not only knelt but even almost kissed the ground in front of Adrienne and the others.

“I’m sorry, Miss Adrienne. I apologize on behalf of my son. Please be magnanimous and don’t hold a grudge against a kid.”

The humiliation burned so fiercely that Heidi’s eyes turned red. Tears welled up but were forcibly held back, making her eyes sting even more, her vision blurring.

She thought this would be the end of it.

But it wasn’t.

“You work so hard to make money just for your son’s treatment, right? I can help you. As long as you agree to be Adrienne’s and my maid, I’ll not only let him stay here but also pay you. How about it?”

Heidi stared at Calvin deeply, her mind recalling Sharon’s words.

‘Umbilical cord blood can also save your son.’

Tommie had a rare blood type. Finding a matching bone marrow donor was like searching for a needle in a haystack. She couldn’t just watch her son die—umbilical cord blood was her last hope.

She had thought getting pregnant again would be difficult.

But when she saw the agreement, she couldn’t stop the pain from gripping her heart.

[A maid by day, a plaything by night.]

Calvin looked at her, his eyes filled with nothing but ridicule and icy disdain.

“Heidi, why aren’t you saying anything? Haven’t you always been willing to do anything for money? Back then, you could sell yourself to another man, but now you can’t sell yourself to me?

“You should be grateful that I don’t despise you. What right do you have to refuse?”

His expression was ice-cold, freezing Heidi’s heart until it trembled with pain.

Thinking of Tommie, she let out a sorrowful smile, shook her head, and picked up the pen to sign her name. As she lowered her gaze, a single tear fell onto the paper, smudging the names written there.

“Heidi! You can’t sign that!”

Sharon suddenly burst into the hospital room, snatching the agreement away. But when she saw its contents, she couldn’t help but turn to Calvin.

“A plaything? A maid? Mr. Rosenbach, what a pity—she’s got such beautiful eyes, yet they’re wasted on a blind man like you. Last time, you nearly killed her by forcing her to drink. And now, you’re humiliating both her and Tommie again! Do you even know… that this boy is your son?!”