Chapter 1

“I have a daughter and a son. They’re twins. They’re your children.”

After speaking, Sonnet looked at Mason Stewart, who was sitting opposite her.

Mason smiled and said, “Sonnet, what kind of joke is this? I haven’t met you since we broke up five years ago.”

“The children are four years old now. I got pregnant with them after that night,” Sonnet said.

Mason’s smile gradually disappeared.

Sonnet leaned forward and spoke in a slightly frantic tone, “I know that you’re married. I didn’t come here to tell you this because I want to ruin your family. I just want you to help me with something!”

“What do you need my help with?”

“Can you do a bone marrow match test with my son? He has leukemia!”

Mason remained silent.

He raised his head and finished the water in his glass. He then spoke up in a deep voice, “My bone marrow won’t match that of your son!”

“The match rate will be higher than that of someone who isn’t biologically related to him…”

Mason interrupted her before she could finish speaking. “I’m not biologically related to your son!”

Sonnet was stunned.

“I’ll tell you the truth now since so much has happened. Back then, I wasn’t the one who slept with you in the club on that night.”

Sonnet’s head started buzzing. After some time, she asked, “Then…Who was it…”

Mason shook his head and said, “I don’t know who it was. When I saw you, you’d already been…I didn’t tell you the truth because I didn’t want you to be upset.”

Sonnet suddenly understood everything. “This is the real reason why you broke up with me, right?”

Mason did not reply to her. Instead, he stood up and said, “Don’t look for me anymore. My wife minds it a lot.”

He then left.

Sonnet held the tablecloth in a clenched fist as she looked at his silhouette.

Initially, she thought that her son had some hope now. She did not expect to receive such a huge blow.

Her heart lurched. It hurt so much that she found it hard to breathe.

Her phone rang. She took in a deep breath and looked at it. It was someone from the village. “Miss Turner, hurry up and come back. Your father suddenly fainted!”

Sonnet’s mind went blank. She hung up the call and ran off at once…

——

United City Hospital, United County.

“Your father has middle-stage gastric cancer. He urgently needs to receive surgery and treatment right now. Our hospital has limited resources, so I recommend you to transfer him to a larger hospital in Harbor City for treatment.”

Sonnet clenched her hands into fists after hearing what the doctor said. “May I know how much would the hospital fees be?”

“It’s estimated that you’ll need to pay around 74 thousand dollars for the surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and the like.”

74 thousand dollars!

Sonnet’s heart constricted.

As a teacher in the village, she had a meager monthly salary of 450 dollars.

Her father was ill and bedridden. Her son had just been diagnosed with leukemia. She was already feeling crushed at the idea of having to pay for their hospital fees. How could she get her hands on 74 thousand dollars?

After coming out from the doctor’s office, she thought about it and made a phone call.

The call went through. The noises of a group of people playing poker rang out from the other side of the call.

Sonnet gulped down before calling out, “Mom.”

“Why are you calling me right now? What’s the matter? Hurry up and tell me!” The shrill voice of a woman rang out. She sounded rather impatient.

“I’d like to borrow some money from you.”

“You’d like to borrow some money? How much do you need?”

“Can I borrow…74 thousand dollars?”

The person on the other end of the call quietened down. Her voice then raised several pitches as she shouted out, “Sonnet Turner, you’re asking for the stars! 74 thousand dollars?! How can you expect me to lend you so much money? What gives you the right to ask this?!”

“I’ll return it to you!”

“How are you going to return it with the measly salary you receive as a teacher in the village?” Martha Cole said in a sarcastic tone, “You won’t be able to return that amount of money to me even after you die!”

“Sonnet Turner, don’t forget what you told me ten years ago. Haven’t you cut ties with us? But now you’re…”

Sonnet hung up on the call before she could finish speaking.

She laughed at herself. She had been way too naive.

She thought that they would take their relationship into consideration and help her out. Now, it seemed like the biological ties they shared with her were worth nothing to them.

She pondered on it and called the village head. “Sir, can I borrow some money from you…”

Sonnet asked around for the next couple of days, but she only managed to borrow 7 thousand dollars.

The villagers were pretty passionate about helping her out after hearing that Myles had gotten gastric cancer. However, they were way too poor. It was great that they were willing to lend her any money at all.

Sonnet was so worried that she could not fall asleep. Just then, she suddenly received a call from Jessie Cole.

“I heard about what happened to you. Your son was diagnosed with leukemia, and your father has gastric cancer, right?”

Sonnet remained silent.

The woman on the other end of the call sounded completely emotionless when she said the words “your father”.

How could she be so heartless?

Jessie was Myles Turner’s biological daughter.

“I know a way that can help you pay for your father’s illness and your son’s bone marrow transplant surgery,” Jessie said.

Sonnet immediately asked, “What do I need to do?”

“You just need to marry someone on my behalf. The man’s from a well-off family. Money won’t be a problem after you marry him.”

“If he’s well-off, why won’t you marry him?” Sonnet asked sarcastically.

Jessie always wished to get together with a wealthy man. Why would she let her have this opportunity if the man was that well-off?

“I’ll tell you the truth. That man is a fool…”

“I won’t marry him.”

Jessie’s voice grew shriller as she said, “Dad made a promise with them back then. You’re mom and dad’s biological daughter. You should be the one marrying him instead!”

Sonnet chuckled and said, “It seems like I’m Harold and Martha Cole’s biological daughter only when you need to marry a fool. Jessie Cole, you can’t be so evil!”

She hung up on the call after speaking.

Sonnet’s eyes turned red-rimmed as she stared outside the window.

She and Jessie had each been brought back to the wrong families after they were born. They had exchanged families.

Their families finally found out about it when they were twelve years old. She and Jessie were then brought back to their biological families.

However, the Collins family were not close with her. They all missed Jessie, who had returned to the village, instead.

After that, Jessie could no longer bear her harsh life in the village. She cut ties with the Turner family and returned to Harbor City.

Subsequently, her foster parents got into an accident. Her foster mother passed away, and her foster father, Myles Turner, became disabled. There was no one to look after him.

Sonnet returned to the village to look after her foster father.

Her biological mother, Martha, asked her to come back to them, but she could not bear to leave her foster father behind. She then cut ties with her in a fit of rage.

She never contacted the Cole family ever again after that.

She had lowered herself to borrow money from them just because of her father’s illness. She did not expect this to be the outcome instead.

“Sonnet, hurry up! Your father vomited blood and passed out. He’s in the intensive care unit right now!” A nurse ran over and called out to her.

Sonnet did not have the time to feel upset anymore. She ran towards the intensive care unit at once.

She used up the 7 thousand dollars in five days.

The doctor spoke to Sonnet in a serious tone, “Given your father’s current condition, he needs to receive surgery immediately. Otherwise, if his condition worsens any further, he might not be able to go through surgery anymore. Do you really want to see your father lose his life?”

Sonnet’s heart hurt terribly as she looked at her foster father, who was lying on the bed in the ward, through the window.

The scene of him carrying her on his shoulders as they played around in the mountains flashed through her mind.

Her father was such a good man. Could she really watch him die before her eyes?

There was also her son, Jaybie. He was so adorable. Was she going to watch as he grew weaker and weaker before he eventually died before her eyes?

No, she could not let that happen!

After a sleepless night, she dialled Jessie’s number and said, “I’ll do it. I’ll marry him…”