Chapter 3

“Cancer is a bottomless pit. Instead of thinking about how to provide for your wife, you’re actually pressuring her like this. How could you?

“If I were you, I’d take some sleeping pills and quietly end things without becoming a burden to anyone. Leave the house and whatever assets you have to your wife. That’s what a responsible man would do.”

Ryan spoke with such conviction that Emily looked at him with undisguised admiration.

Then she turned to me with nothing but contempt.

“You’re both men. Just look at him, then look at you. How can the difference be so huge?”

Easy for him to say when he wasn’t the one dying.

If Ryan were really that selfless, why would he team up with Emily to transfer his stomach cancer to an innocent man like me?

I sneered.

“So you really like him that much?”

Ryan frowned before Emily could answer.

“I’m just Emily’s classmate. I happened to run into her mother and came along to check on her. Don’t make wild accusations just because you can’t keep your own mind out of the gutter.”

Emily immediately backed him up.

“You’re so suspicious that you think everyone else is just as filthy-minded as you are.”

I looked at Emily, my heart filled with sorrow.

I had genuinely loved her. I had genuinely wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. That’s why I’d spoiled her and given in to her at every turn.

But in the end, I still couldn’t warm her heart.

A mocking smile tugged at the corner of my lips.

“Then what would you do if your wife were the one who had cancer?”

Ryan glanced at me.

“I’d spend every last penny I had to get my wife treated. Even if there were only a one-in-ten-thousand chance of saving her, I wouldn’t give up.”

If I hadn’t still had a shred of reason left, Emily probably would have thrown her arms around him right then and there.

I scoffed.

“We’ll see.”

Catherine frowned and continued trying to persuade me.

“Daniel, chemotherapy is incredibly painful, and the chances of survival aren’t exactly high. Why put yourself through all that suffering?”

She spoke so casually about life and death.

Of course, it was easy for her to say when I was the one who might die, not Emily.

“So you’re saying that even if there’s a chance I can be cured, I should give up treatment and wait to die?”

Catherine clicked her tongue disapprovingly.

“Don’t make it sound so terrible. It’s simply a matter of weighing the pros and cons.

“Are you sure you’ll be cured? What if you spend all that money and still don’t make it? What will happen to my daughter then?

“When you married her, you promised you’d love her, protect her, and take care of her for the rest of your life. Have you forgotten that already?”

She was right. I had made those promises when we got married, and I’d kept every single one of them.

But Emily had made promises too. She’d vowed to stand by me through good times and bad, in sickness and in health.

Yet now, she was waiting for me to die.

I sneered.

“There’s no chance I’m going to sit around and wait for death. If I run out of money, I’ll sell my house. If that’s not enough, I’ll take out online loans. No one is going to stop me from fighting for my life.”

Emily angrily jumped to her feet and tried to scratch me again, but her mother shouted at her.

“Emily! Talk things out. You’re husband and wife. Even if he won’t think about you, he should at least leave a way forward for his child.”

Emily looked at her mother as though she’d suddenly realized something.

Tears glistening in her eyes, she pulled an ultrasound report from her purse.

“Honey, after five years, we’re finally going to have a child of our own.

“I was going to surprise you after I reached three months, but unfortunately, the baby came at the worst possible time.

“I’ve thought it through. If you want to fight the cancer, I’ll stay by your side. I’ll end the pregnancy for now, and when we’re in a better financial position, we can try again.”

She finished speaking and quietly watched my reaction.

Catherine wore a knowing expression, as though she had me exactly where she wanted me.

Even Ryan’s lips curled into a faint smile.

I suddenly grinned.

“Sure. Then go ahead and end the pregnancy.”