"Mandy, Keith accidentally cut his hand just now…"

Mark's voice rang out at that very moment. He was holding Keith in his arms. Although his expression seemed calm, his eyes held a helpless, pleading look.

"Is Caleb still upset? Maybe you should go back and try to coax him first. Keith and I are used to being ourselves. We'll be fine."

She took Keith into her arms and said urgently to Mark, "Come. I'll take you guys to the hospital!"

The anxious look on her face drew praise from the surrounding parents, who praised her for being a good mother.

Meanwhile, her biological son was lying alone on a hospital bed, his life still hanging in the balance.

When they got to the hospital, Amanda single-handedly dealt with everything from registering Keith to securing a doctor and settling the hospital fees.

I never got that sort of treatment from her whenever I needed to see a doctor at the hospital.

After the wound was treated, she carried Keith past the pediatric ward. A young boy came hopping past her, and his back reminded her of Evan's.

Amanda stopped in her tracks. Seeming to have thought of something, she passed Keith back to Mark.

"Take Keith home. I-I'm going to get Evan a birthday gift," she said before hurrying off.

So she remembered that it was Evan's birthday tomorrow, huh?

Amanda ran into Lara at the hospital entrance. Lara's eyes were completely swollen. She was startled to see Amanda, but soon, she gritted her teeth and said, "I guess you still have a heart after all. At least you came to see Evan. The doctor said that he would wake soon. You should check on him."

Amanda's face darkened, and she gave Lara a hard slap. "I'm warning you. You shouldn't cross the line with these practical jokes of yours!"

Then, she sidestepped the dumbfounded Lara and marched to the parking lot.

All I could do was scoff. Even now, she still thought that everyone else was lying to her.

Feeling exhausted myself, I drifted into the front passenger seat and followed her to the mall. She bought Evan a nice jacket and the latest Lego set. Then, she stopped by the cakery to buy Evan's favorite strawberry cake.

When Amanda arrived home, she found the house empty. She pulled out her phone and texted me.

"Stop kicking up a fuss, sweetheart. Now that I've used you and Evan to exchange for Mark and Keith, I've finally repaid Rachel for saving my life. It's Evan's birthday tomorrow. Let's give him a proper celebration, okay?"

In the past, my heart would've softened at the way she was giving in and compromising. After all, Evan was still so young. I didn't want him to be traumatized from growing up with parents who didn't get along with each other.

But now, I just wanted to grab a vase and crack her skull open with it. I wanted to see whether she had a functioning brain at all.

Alas, my hand drifted right through the vase, which seemed to be mocking me for how useless I was.

I felt a surge of helplessness and despair.

Why was I being bound to her even in death, unable to get any peace?

Somehow, some divine power seemed to have heard my ranting. At the very next moment, my soul drifted into Evan's room, as if it'd been yanked over by some invisible force.

Evan's tiny body lay on the hospital bed, his face as pale as a sheet. Suddenly, his eyelids fluttered slightly.

He was waking up! Evan, my precious son, was stirring!

I was so excited that I wanted to press the call button to summon a doctor, but my hand passed through the air again and again.

Just then, someone carefully opened the door. Mark entered, with Keith following right behind.

Mark walked up to the bed and looked down at the unconscious Evan. His usually pleasant expression was replaced with a look of pure malice.

"Why is it so hard to kill you, you little bastard? I had specifically instructed the kidnappers to kill you alongside your bastard of a father, but you ended up surviving. But it's fine. I'll just send you down to hell now so that you can keep your father company."

He pulled a syringe filled with an unknown liquid from his pocket and poked it into Evan's IV drip.

"No!" I screamed like a madman, trying to push the evil Mark away, to no avail. All I could do was watch as the liquid was slowly injected into Evan's body.

Evan began to convulse violently. The heartbeat monitor went haywire, and a piercing alarm blared.

"Beep—Beep—Beep—"

Hearing the sound, the medical team rushed into the room.

I desperately wanted to hold Evan, but my soul was once again yanked away by some powerful force, instantly pulling me back to Amanda's side.

I felt like I was about to go crazy. I threw punches and kicks at her, screaming at her to check on Evan and save him. But alas, my limbs simply flailed in the air, never hitting anything.

With my soul hovering less than three feet away from Amanda, I continued to thrash about in a state of absolute anxiety and despair.

However, she was completely absorbed in making a cardboard house. It was the craft project Evan had to complete for school. He had happily asked Amanda to help him, but she had impatiently refused.

Well, the due date for that project had long passed, yet here she was, pretending to be a dutiful mother.

Suddenly, the door flew open.

Mark came in with Keith in his arms. He ran up to Amanda, looking absolutely terrified, his voice shaking as he cried, "Mandy! Please check on Keith. I… I just saw Lara sneaking out of a hospital ward with Caleb and Evan…

"I just wanted to go over to them and check on them, but Caleb… suddenly lost his mind. He used a knife to stab Keith! My heart is hurting like mad, but I'm too scared to go to the hospital…"

Amanda clenched her fists in rage when she saw the faintest streak of blood on Keith's arm. She immediately destroyed the cardboard house she was building.

After calling a doctor she knew to come to the house to treat Mark and Keith, she began spamming my phone with calls. When none of them went through, she called Lara's phone instead.

However, Lara had dropped her phone outside the resuscitation room when she followed the doctors who'd taken Evan there. She was unreachable as well.

"I see how it is!" Amanda scoffed in anger before throwing the cake and the gifts she bought to the floor.

She stomped on the items, destroying them all in a fit of anger.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to host a grand birthday party for Keith's birthday! I'm ordering every single person on the squad to attend!" Amanda roared into her phone before sending the voice message to the group chat.

Over at the hospital, following a two-hour rescue attempt, Evan's heart stopped beating.

The doctors repeatedly tried calling Amanda, but their calls went unanswered. Mark, who had stayed by Amanda's side, had secretly declined them all.

Our colleagues from the police squad who'd gone to the hospital all fell into a heavy silence.

In the end, Lara said hoarsely, "It's Evan's birthday tomorrow. Let's celebrate with him one last time before putting him to rest."

…

The next day, the house that Amanda and I shared was all decked out with colorful decorations. The place looked festive and lively.

A massive cake stood in the center of the living room, and Keith stood in front of it, his smile smug.

Mark stood beside Amanda with a pleasant, gentlemanly smile on his face. All the people on Amanda's squad showed up, but none of them were smiling.

"It's time to blow out the candles, Keith. Let's all wish a happy birthday to my wonderful godson!" Amanda declared as she tried to lead everyone in a happy birthday serenade.

Keith puffed out his cheeks. He was just about to blow out the candle when the front door was kicked open.

Lara and a few other colleagues entered. They were all dressed in black, their expressions somber. Two teammates behind her were holding funeral portraits draped in black cloth.

"Amanda, we're here to bring a fallen hero and his son home."

Amanda's smile froze. Looking rather flustered, she questioned, "What fallen hero? What kind of stunt are you guys trying to pull this time?"

The moment she said that, a gust of wind blew in through the front of the door, lifting the black cloth off the funeral portraits of Evan and me.