Chapter 1

"Was he attacked by terrorists? This place is so dangerous, but you still went out with a baby. Are you insane?" a member of the medical staff asked.

"He was probably beaten by Lilian's underworld gang. Notify the doctors immediately and prepare for emergency surgery!" another medic said.

My son, Wesley Carson, lay on the operating table. His body was mangled and covered in blood. His mouth had been sewn shut, and he was barely breathing.

The doctors could never have guessed that it was my wife, Lilian Barton, who had her people brutalize Wesley like this.

Until today, I had no idea that Lilian led an underworld gang in Teravon.

She ordered her men to beat Wesley mercilessly. While Wesley cried out in agony, she felt nothing but irritation at the noise and disgust at the sight of his blood.

"Blood on a wedding day is the worst omen. This perfect occasion has been ruined by this cursed little thing," she said.

She quickly had someone drag Wesley to the hills behind the venue, then turned to clutch another man's hand tightly. "Honey, don't worry. I'll take you to the chapel later to cleanse all this bad luck."

My heart felt like it was being torn apart. She acted as if what happened to Wesley was the greatest desecration of their wedding.

Wasn't Lilian the one who came to me every day to make Wesley's birth possible? If she had even glanced back once, she would have recognized him.

Lilian wanted Wesley to remain completely silent so that nothing would ruin their wedding.

I desperately tried to protect Wesley from Lilian's men as they beat him, but it only seemed to excite them more to torment a baby under a hundred days old. When I shouted that I was Lilian's husband, they cruelly sewed my mouth shut as well.

Back then, after Lilian married me, she clung to me every day, always telling me she loved me. We were together for eight full years. She longed for a child and sought me out every night.

When she finally became pregnant with Wesley, she even cried tears of joy. How could she be the one trying to kill Wesley now?

At that moment, Wesley lay on the cold operating table. The clatter of surgical instruments echoed around us, each sound cutting into my nerves.

If Wesley didn't survive, what would I do? Could there be any chance that Lilian would show up after seeing the message I sent her, saying Wesley had a sudden asthma attack and needed emergency care?

Just then, a familiar voice reached my ears. "Hurry! Please save my husband!"

I thought that Lilian had remembered me. I struggled to open my eyes and looked through the glass door of the operating room.

Instead, I saw Lilian cradling her new husband's wounded arm, panic written all over her face. Yet when the hospital staff tried to call her about Wesley, her phone never went through.

"Are you alright? I told you to let the men handle those things. This must hurt so much."

As Lilian spoke, her voice began to tremble. So, this was how deeply she cherished another man, enough to completely ignore her frail and sickly son. The reason I couldn't reach her was probably that she was afraid that I'd disrupt her wedding.

My entire body was bruised and battered from the beatings Lilian had ordered. I had held on until now only because Wesley's life was still in danger.

"Isn't there a doctor available to perform the surgery?" I asked.

Wesley lay in the operating room. The harsh surgical lights reflected off his bruised face, sending a chill through me. All I could do was watch him grimace in pain as his blood slowly drained away, while there was still no doctor available to operate.

"Are you still unable to reach his mother?" the doctor asked.

Without a signed consent form, the doctors didn't dare schedule a surgeon to operate on Wesley.

"There's no time to wait for paperwork. Have the surgeon begin the emergency surgery immediately," the doctor said.

My consciousness gradually faded, and the faces around me blurred. Shadowy figures flashed past me one after another, like demons from hell coming to claim Wesley's life.

Lilian's new husband heard the commotion and said in surprise, "It seems that the child who was hit today is also in this hospital."

"Why isn't he dead yet? I should have snapped his neck right there. He was so annoying," Lilian cursed viciously.

The hospital staff said that they couldn't reach Lilian. Yet the woman at the end of the hallway, cursing and wishing Wesley dead, was none other than my unreachable wife.

At that moment, the Lilian I had once loved seemed utterly despicable in my eyes.