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第3章

Author: Ibuprofen
At three in the afternoon, the medication meant to make my uterus contract had my whole body spasming with pain. With an aide supporting me, I shuffled to the NICU viewing window.

Through the sterile glass, I finally saw my babies.

So tiny.

Their skin was mottled red, their impossibly thin arms threaded with IV lines, breathing tubes taped into their mouths, their little chests heaving with each rapid, terrifying breath.

A nurse spoke softly, "Both babies are fighters. Their oxygen levels have stabilized a little today."

I pressed my trembling hand flat against the glass.

The phone at the nurses' station rang. After a brief exchange, the nurse held it out to me. "Ms. Mitchell, it's your brother."

Derek's voice exploded through the receiver. "Serena! Why the hell did you freeze my card? I'm supposed to pay my study abroad deposit and agency fee today, a hundred and thirty thousand dollars, and the card is showing frozen. Unfreeze it right now!"

Behind the glass, a nurse was inserting a central line into my daughter's vein. The baby's limbs twitched with pain, but with the tube in her mouth, she couldn't make a sound.

"That card is linked to my personal business account."

I said calmly, "Starting today, your luxury car payments, your apartment rent, I'm done paying for all of it."

"Are you out of your mind? This is my shot at a real future!"

"Over the past seven years, I've covered your tuition, your retake fees, the two hundred thousand dollars you blew at bars, and the four hundred thousand you spent picking up the tab for your friends. All of it was me."

I let out a small laugh. "But last night, you told Adrian I was built tough, and that even if you asked me to donate both kidneys to Vivian, I wouldn't dare say a word."

The line went dead silent.

My mother's shrill voice came on a moment later. "Your brother was joking around. Was that really worth all this?

"Adrian is a chief surgeon at a major hospital. Vivian comes from a good family, she's highly educated, and she's only staying for a few days. What's wrong with that?

"You're pregnant and acting like a drama queen, and you have the nerve to give him attitude!"

She was picking up steam. "Adrian said that if you go back today and apologize to Vivian, he'll cover the study abroad fees and even buy you a brand-new BMW. So get yourself back there right now!"

Tears fell.

Not from self-pity, but for the ten years I had wasted.

After my father died, paying off the family's debts and putting Derek through school fell to me.

I worked three jobs a day, washing dishes in the dead of winter until my hands cracked open with chilblains. Then I bought my mother a house and cleaned up one mess after another that Derek left behind.

In their eyes, all of it was simply my duty.

"Mom..."

I cut her off. "Starting today, if Derek wants to go abroad, he can take out a loan. I'm also disconnecting the property fees, utilities, and supplemental insurance on your place from my accounts."

Behind the glass, my son's eyes cracked open the tiniest sliver.

"The deed to that house is in my name. You have one month to move out, or my lawyer will file for forced eviction."

"Serena! You dare throw your own mother out? God will strike you down for this!"

I hung up and blocked the number.

A text from Adrian came through on my personal phone moments later.

"Tomorrow. Seven p.m. Crown Plaza Hotel. Vivi's welcome dinner. Wear the red evening gown I bought you last year. Raise a glass to Vivi, and I'll let everything from yesterday and today slide."

For my birthday last year, he had been off visiting Vivian overseas and had his assistant grab a clearance-rack dress two sizes too small.

Now he wanted me to drag my freshly stitched, still-bleeding C-section wound into that dress and go smile for him.

I texted back three words: "See you there."

Adrian replied instantly with a smiley emoji.

"That's more like it. Don't be late."

Around the corner of the hallway, Attorney Harper approached with a sealed envelope. "All the documents have been notarized, including evidence that Adrian abandoned his emergency post during an on-call shift and misused critical care resources. The chain of evidence is airtight."

I braced myself against the wall and straightened up. "Tomorrow night, deliver the lawsuit and the disciplinary report to him."

This wasn't an apology.

It was a tenth anniversary gift.
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