She told me that as long as she was alive, I would never go hungry.

No one could have predicted what happened the next day. Mama Bridget was hit by a car.

In those final, desperate seconds, she used every ounce of strength to shield her own daughter in her arms. The impact killed her on the spot, her blood painting the asphalt.

Before she died, she held my hand and repeated the same words over and over:

"Ebony, please take care of Bella for me. Promise me you'll look after her..."

I sobbed so hard I could barely breathe, but I nodded. I nodded with everything I had.

Bella was rushed into the ICU with critical injuries. She stayed there for two full years.

During those two years, her medical bills became a mountain crushing the air from my lungs. I worked every job I could find, skipped meals, pinched every penny. But the little I scraped together was a drop in the ocean against the cost of her treatment.

So, with nowhere left to turn, I spent every last cent of my savings to enroll in the Gold-Digger Training Program.

I knew it wasn't an honorable path. But I had no other choice. If it meant raising enough money to wake Bella up and fulfill Mama Bridget's dying wish, I was willing to pay any price.

After the program ended, I deliberately sought out Mick Delgado. Step by step, I inserted myself into his world, molding myself into the kind of woman he wanted, all so I could get money from him.

Over the years, the money I got from Mick allowed me to take Bella to specialists everywhere. I watched her improve little by little. First she couldn't move at all. Then she could sit up. Then she could speak.

Every small change gave me the strength to stay by Mick's side one more day.

"Ebony, what are you thinking about?"

Bella's voice pulled me back from my thoughts.

I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and smiled, ruffling her hair.

"I'm thinking about where I should take my Bella once she's out of the hospital."

Her eyes lit up instantly. She opened her mouth to speak, but the door to the room slammed open.

I looked up. Standing in the doorway were Mick and Hester.

I'll admit, seeing Mick there caught me completely off guard.

I had once mentioned to him that I had an important family member who really wanted to meet him. He'd just frowned, his tone cold and impatient:

"You think I have time for that?"

Those words were seared into my memory. So why was he here now?

Before I could process it, Hester was already clinging to Mick's arm, striding into the room. She swept her gaze over me and Bella, and a cruel smile curled at the corner of her lips.

"See, Mick? I wasn't lying." She jabbed a finger toward Bella on the hospital bed, her voice climbing to a shrill pitch. "Look at this! Ebony's been cheating on you! Her daughter's already this big! I always said she was sneaking off to the hospital for no reason, acting all secretive. Turns out she was visiting this little bastard."

Bella flinched at the sound of her voice and grabbed the hem of my shirt, her eyes wide with terror.

In that moment, every last thread of my restraint snapped.

Hester could humiliate me. She could drag me through the mud. I could take it.

But she had no right to use words that vile against a child who had just clawed her way back from the edge of death and still hadn't fully recovered.

Rage whited out my vision. I shot to my feet, and before Hester could react, my palm connected with her face.

The slap cracked through the hospital room like a gunshot.

Hester's head snapped to the side. She clutched her cheek, and a shrill, piercing wail tore out of her:

"You bitch! How dare you hit me?!"

I stood there, chest heaving, my eyes locked on hers like ice.

"Apologize to Bella."

Hester pressed her lips together and refused to say a word. I was about to slap her again when Mick's hand shot out and clamped around my wrist like a vise.

His expression was terrifyingly dark, his voice cold as ice.

"Ebony, are you done making a scene? Give me an explanation!"

"What the hell is going on? Whose child is she?"

Looking at that face, I suddenly found the whole thing laughable.

"Explain what? Mick, we're already divorced!"

"What I do has nothing to do with you. I don't owe you a single explanation."

"What did you just say?"

My words pushed him over the edge. His chest heaved violently, and the fury in his eyes burned hot enough to consume me whole. He released my wrist and turned toward the hallway outside the room, his voice a roar:

"Every doctor in this wing, get over here. Stop all treatment for this child immediately."

The words hit me like a bolt of lightning. My entire body went rigid, and the blood in my veins turned to ice.

How could I have forgotten? Mick held shares in this hospital.

He had more than enough power to shut down Bella's treatment with a single sentence.

And today was the day of Bella's leg surgery. It was her only chance of ever walking again. Nothing could go wrong. Nothing.

The anger that had blazed through me moments ago vanished without a trace, replaced by a terror that sank straight to the bone.

I stumbled forward and grabbed the hem of Mick's jacket.

"Mick, don't..."

"Don't stop the treatment. Today is Bella's surgery. It's important. It's so important."

Mick looked down at me, fury blazing in his eyes.

"So that's what it was. You got close to me, you played nice, and none of it was real. It was all for this child. You were using my money to raise someone else's kid?"

Hester saw her opening and pounced. She clutched at me, sobbing as she spoke.

"Mick, she planned this from the start. She's been using you all along."

Her words were the final spark. Mick whipped around and bellowed at the medical staff inside the room.

"Every doctor, every nurse, get out! Now!"

"All treatment for this child stops immediately. Anyone who touches her again is fired on the spot."

The doctors and nurses who had been stationed outside the room, ready to take Bella into surgery at any moment, went white as sheets. They glanced at one another, then at Mick, and one by one, heads bowed, they filed out in silence.

The door to the room swung shut.

My legs gave out beneath me, and the tears I'd been holding back finally spilled down my cheeks.

I grabbed Mick's sleeve and held on for dear life, my voice cracking.

"Mick, please. Let her go. Bella is innocent. If you spare her, I'll do anything. Anything."

Mick let out a cold laugh, enunciating every syllable.

"She means that much to you?"

"Yes."

The word left my mouth before I could think. There wasn't a shred of hesitation. "She means more to me than my own life."

Something in that sentence made him laugh, a sharp, ugly sound.

"Fine, Ebony. Then get on your knees. Kneel down and beg me."

I closed my eyes. My heart sank to the bottom of an abyss.

Dignity. Pride. Every line I'd ever drawn for myself. In front of Bella, none of it mattered.

I let go of his sleeve. My knees began to bend.

Then a warm, steady hand closed around my arm from behind and pulled me upright. A low, quiet laugh broke over the top of my head like thunder on a clear day.

"Using your power to settle a personal grudge, Mr. Delgado?"