Chapter 3

A few minutes later, a nurse hurried in. "Mr. Evans, Ms. Fielder's son urgently needs a blood transfusion. Since she's one of our major shareholders, all the Rh-negative blood in the blood bank has been sent to the VIP ward."

Her words struck me like a bolt from the blue and shattered the last shred of reason I had left.

I handed Lily to the nurse, spun around, and sprinted straight for the VIP ward on the top floor.

I kicked open the door to find Marcus sitting beside the bed, playing a game with Ryan. The scrape on the boy's knee was so tiny that it didn't even need a Band-Aid.

The sight felt like an ice-cold blade plunging straight into my heart.

Hatred surged through my chest and nearly consumed me. I couldn't stop myself from screaming, "Give that blood to my daughter!"

Marcus jumped at the sight of me.

When he saw me about to charge forward, he frantically stamped his feet. "Security! There's a lunatic in here! Get him out!"

The security guards rushed over and dragged me from the room. The fury burning in my chest threatened to tear through my throat.

"There was enough blood in the hospital! He's the one refusing to give it up! I'm calling Natalie right now!"

The commotion caught the attention of the hospital director, Leonard Miller. His brows immediately furrowed.

"Which one of you is Ms. Fielder's husband?" he asked.

Marcus immediately held up his phone and showed Leonard a digital copy of the marriage certificate. "Look carefully! I'm Natalie's husband. Our marriage is legally registered with the county! Ryan is her biological son!"

He shot me a venomous sideways glance. "That bastard's daughter is nothing but a little bastard."

My heart twisted in agony. The thought of Lily's pale little face in the emergency room drove me to my knees in front of Marcus.

"I'm begging you. Please save my daughter..."

Marcus didn't even bother to look at me. He leisurely pulled up Natalie's number and called her.

The moment she answered, I screamed into the phone, "Natalie! Lily was cut, and she has a blood-clotting disorder. She needs a transfusion immediately! If she doesn't get one, she's really going to die!"

A brief silence followed before Natalie's impatient voice came through. "Matthew, I'm the one who had the blood sent to Ryan. Stop making a scene.

"How could a newborn have a blood-clotting disorder? Are you really going to curse a baby that small?"

Tears streamed down my face. "Your own flesh and blood is about to die! Do you even understand what I'm saying?!"

Leonard suddenly leaned closer to the phone, his tone ingratiating. "Ms. Fielder, this man keeps insisting that he's your husband..."

Natalie's voice turned icy. "My husband is Marcus. He's taking care of my son, Ryan. I... don't have a daughter."

Everyone looked at me with even greater contempt, as though I were some lunatic.

Marcus suddenly let out a cold laugh. Right in front of me, he slammed the bag of blood onto the floor.

"You think that bastard you picked up off the street deserves blood like this?" He ground his heel into the spilled blood, each word dripping with venom. "I'd rather pour it out and feed it to a dog than give it to you."

At that moment, it felt as though someone had crushed my heart in their fist. Even breathing hurt.

I staggered back to Lily's hospital room, my tears falling onto her pale little face like beads from a broken string.

Just as despair began to swallow me whole, my phone screen lit up.

Marcus had posted on social media again.

The photo showed the 7,000 dollars Natalie had just transferred to him, along with the note: [Take good care of our son.]

I stared at the picture as every drop of blood in my body seemed to turn cold. In my arms, the little girl's breathing grew weaker by the second.

Just then, a clear, deep male voice came from the doorway.