ANMELDENThe bright white light from the fluorescent lamps on the ceiling of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) room felt piercing as those eyelids slowly began to move. There was no thunderous sound or grand surprise to welcome those precious seconds. The first sounds were merely the soft hiss of oxygen flowing through the respirator tube and the constant beeping of the electrocardiogram monitor.The slender fingers that had previously lain rigidly limp on top of the white bedsheet suddenly twitched faintly.Calvin, who for the past two weeks had not moved even for a second from the chair beside the bed, immediately jolted upright. The middle-aged man leaned forward, his eyes widening as he stared at his wife’s face, his breath suddenly caught in his throat.“Camelia...?” Calvin called in a hoarse voice, trembling violently, almost inaudible.Slowly, Camelia’s eyelids opened completely. However, the gaze behind her eyes held no clear focus. The woman
The distinctive scent of hospital floor disinfectant mixed with the cold smell of the corridor’s air conditioning, greeting yet another morning on the third floor of the intensive care building. The calendar sheet on the nurses’ station showed that exactly seven days had passed—a full week during which the world inside that ICU room seemed to have stopped turning for the Ashford family.Behind the transparent glass wall, Camelia still lay rigidly on the hospital bed. A transparent respirator tube was tightly attached over part of her face, helping maintain her breathing rhythm, which was now entirely dependent on the mechanical machine. The middle-aged woman’s face looked so pale, contrasting sharply with the light green hospital blanket covering her body. There was no significant movement. Only the sound of the electrocardiogram monitor beeped regularly—beep... beep... beep—indicating that her pulse was still beating, becoming the only thin thread connecting Came
The distinctive smell of disinfectant and sedatives mingled heavily in the silent corridor on the third floor of the central hospital. The atmosphere in front of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) door felt incredibly tense, far colder than on the previous nights. The hands of the large wall clock mounted above the door moved slowly, as though deliberately prolonging the emotional torment being endured by every member of the Ashford family.Calvin stood stiffly against the pale white wall. The surgical consent form he had signed just a few hours ago still remained vivid in his mind. The hardest decision of his life had been made with violently trembling hands.The emergency surgery to remove the fetuses in order to save his wife’s life had been completed about an hour ago. However, until this very moment, the green light above the ICU room had yet to signal any good news, and Camelia still lay motionless behind the thick glass door without showing any sign of
Time passed incredibly quickly, leaving behind the rush of days that the Ashford family endured beneath tightly suppressed tension. The wall calendar in the corner of Calvin’s study now displayed a date that made anyone who looked at it feel their heartbeat leap into their throat.Only one week remained until Daven and Joye’s official wedding at the main building.All the major preparations had been completed. The luxurious invitations had been sent out, the final stage of the decorations was being handled by the vendors, and a flurry of false happiness had filled the days inside the grand residence. However, behind the faint smile that was always forced onto her lips, Camelia’s body was actually screaming beneath a burden that exceeded the biological limits of a middle-aged woman’s endurance.That day, the wall clock had just pointed to four in the afternoon. The afternoon sunlight streamed through the curtains of the master bedroom window, illu
The soft rustling of the cashmere shawl as it shifted sounded strikingly out of place amid the silence of the Ashford family room. The dim yellow glow from the crystal chandelier cast long shadows across the white marble floor, while the air inside the room suddenly felt incredibly dense, as though filled with thousands of invisible needles ready to pierce at any moment.Juna narrowed his sharp eyes, observing his younger sister’s every movement as she stood upright before him. As her biological older brother who had spent decades by Camelia’s side, the middle-aged man’s instincts were not easily deceived. He sensed something strange hidden behind the perfect smile that had been forcibly etched onto his sister’s lips.“Wait a moment, Camelia,” Juna’s baritone voice broke the silence with an investigative tone. The man stepped closer by two paces, staring intently at his younger sister’s pale face, which she was trying to conceal beneath a thin layer of ma
The lavish wedding celebration held at the Grand Ballroom of the Sapphire Hotel finally came to an end as the clock moved toward nine in the evening. The enormous crystal lights were slowly dimmed, leaving behind the remnants of grandeur that had now given way to silence inside the main Ashford residence. The servants bustled about, cleaning up the remaining equipment, while most of the family members gathered in the family room on the main floor to rest after being battered by a storm of emotions and physical exhaustion throughout the day.In the corner of the room, warm chandelier lights cast a golden glow across the thick wool carpet. The atmosphere in the family room felt far calmer than on previous days, yet remnants of psychological tension still lingered in the eyes of everyone sitting there.Aurora sat with her arms folded on the long sofa, her eyes gazing sadly toward the door of the master bedroom, where her mother had just entered to freshen up







