Chapter 4

The next morning, I woke to nurses giving me strange looks.

Outside the hospital room, a crowd had gathered, their phones raised. Several livestreamers had blocked the hallway, filming Nellie and me without stopping.

"That's her. She took fifty million dollars to get an abortion, then secretly had the baby anyway."

"Blew through fifty million in five years, and now she's using her sick daughter to scam her billionaire ex-husband."

"I heard she even pawned her wedding ring yesterday to guilt him into giving her more money."

I checked my phone and discovered that Nina had published a lengthy post in the early hours of the morning.

She'd shared proof of the supposed fifty-million-dollar transfer, records of overseas property purchases, a list of luxury purchases, and footage of me pawning my wedding ring.

The video had been carefully edited to remove the part where Caleb paid a hundred thousand dollars to buy back the ring but refused to give me a penny. All anyone saw was me asking about the ring's value at the counter, followed by Caleb storming into the pawnshop with an angry expression.

At the end of her post, Nina wrote:

[Mr. Hawthorne is willing to cover all reasonable medical expenses for the child. However, Miss Shaw has refused financial oversight and insists on receiving cash directly. She has even resorted to using their wedding ring and a sick child to emotionally blackmail him.]

The comments were vicious.

Some people said I deserved to die for using my daughter to gain sympathy. Others called Nellie my accomplice. Someone had even tracked down our hospital and room number, drawing livestreamers eager to see the "gold-digging ex-wife of the richest man in town" for themselves.

I asked a nurse to call the police, but there was no stopping the crowd.

One man shoved his phone right into Nellie's face.

"Hey, kid, did your mommy tell you to pretend you're sick so you could come back and ask your daddy for money?"

Nellie shrank into my arms. I covered her face and snapped, "She's only five! Get that phone away from her!"

Instead of backing off, he followed us, still filming.

"Why are you so scared? You're happy to use your kid to get sympathy, but you don't want her finding out the truth?"

"My mommy isn't lying!"

Nellie suddenly pulled away from me and spread her arms, standing protectively in front of me.

"My mommy isn't a liar! She only eats one meal a day because she spends all her money on my medicine!"

The crowd went quiet for two seconds before someone raised another phone.

"See that? She's even taught her five-year-old to lie for her."

Nellie was trembling with anger when blood suddenly gushed from her nose. She fell backward, and the heart monitor began shrieking.

Doctors rushed in and cleared everyone from the room before taking Nellie away for emergency treatment. I crouched outside the doors, my hands covered in her blood, watching it drip onto the floor tiles.

The doctor told me that the distress had caused her clotting levels to deteriorate sharply. She was now at risk of internal bleeding at any moment.

Staring at the illuminated emergency sign, I called Caleb.

It was the first time I'd contacted him of my own accord since we reunited.

He answered almost immediately.

"Finally come to your senses?"

I fought to keep my voice steady.

"The videos online show Nellie's face and medical records. Have them taken down immediately."

Caleb was silent for several seconds.

"That's all you're calling me about?"

"I don't want your money, and I don't need you to clear my name. I just want you to protect your own daughter."

"Fine."

His answer came without hesitation, but a second later, my phone chimed with a file notification.

He'd sent me the medical oversight agreement again.

"Sign it. From now on, the Hawthorne family will pay for Nellie's treatment directly, and I'll have my people deal with the online backlash."

I stared at the document.

"What does taking down videos of our daughter have to do with whether I sign this agreement?"

His voice turned cold.

"All this trouble you've caused is just another attempt to get me to drop the oversight requirements and hand you money you can spend however you like. Zoe, I'll take responsibility for my daughter, but I'm not going to keep indulging you."

"Caleb, our daughter is fighting for her life, and you're bargaining with me?"

"I'm offering you the most reasonable solution I can. If you genuinely cared about Nellie, you wouldn't risk her life just to spite me."

My grip tightened around the phone until my knuckles turned white.

Caleb always had an explanation that made perfect sense to him. If I asked for help, I was admitting defeat. If I refused, I was using our daughter to drive up my demands. Nothing I did would ever change the role he'd assigned me: the greedy ex-wife who could never get enough.

"I'm not signing."

I hung up and turned over all the secretly recorded videos and abusive online comments to my lawyer, Julian Mercer, to preserve as evidence.

An hour later, Nellie was temporarily out of danger.

When the charitable hospital in the neighboring state heard what had happened, they decided to send an ambulance ahead of schedule.

"The child can't stay at the center of this media frenzy. Our ambulance will arrive tonight, and the transfer paperwork is already complete. You can leave whenever you're ready."

At three in the morning, I carried Nellie into the ambulance.

We left without saying goodbye to anyone.

...

As the ambulance drove out of the city, Caleb was still sitting in his office, the medical oversight agreement waiting on his desk for my signature.

Nina brought him a cup of coffee, looking completely relaxed.

"Once the next medical bill comes in, she'll come back on her own."

Caleb nodded.

He didn't believe a woman who couldn't even come up with two hundred thousand dollars would actually turn down the Hawthorne family's offer to pay for her child's treatment.

The following day, Hawthorne Group happened to be hosting a charity livestream for its children's healthcare foundation.

Nina stood beside Caleb in her $1.26 million gown and jewelry.

The host smiled at him. "Mr. Hawthorne, what do you believe is the most important principle when it comes to charitable giving?"

Before Caleb could answer, Nina spoke up.

"Generosity needs boundaries. We're willing to help people who genuinely need it, but we can't simply give in to every demand just because someone puts on a sob story."

Viewers began bringing up Zoe and her daughter in the livestream chat.

[Has that ex-wife who tried to scam him with her sick daughter signed the agreement yet?]

[Don't tell me she's actually trying to use the kid to force Mr. Hawthorne to remarry her.]

Nina glanced at Caleb and smiled confidently.

[Miss Shaw just needs a little more time to come to her senses. For her child's sake, I'm sure she'll return soon and accept Mr. Hawthorne's help.]

Caleb didn't contradict her.

He'd already instructed the front desk to bring me straight up to his office the moment I appeared.

In fact, he'd even decided that if I was willing to swallow my pride and come back, he would overlook the ridiculous scenes I'd caused over the past few days.

There was one condition, though. Nina would remain in charge of overseeing the money.

He needed me to understand that using our daughter to force him into making concessions would never work.

Halfway through the livestream, the comments suddenly began flooding in so quickly they were almost impossible to read.

[Everyone, go look at Zoe Shaw's statement!]

[She posted her surgery records and bank statements from five years ago!]

[There's something seriously wrong with Nina Sullivan!]

Caleb frowned and looked toward Nina, whose face had already gone pale.

The comments kept pouring in, faster and faster, until the entire screen seemed to be filled with the same message.

[Zoe Shaw only ever received five hundred dollars.]

Caleb motioned for his assistant to cut the livestream, then picked up his phone and opened my statement.

The first image was a screenshot of a bank transfer.

Five years ago, Nina had transferred exactly $500 to Zoe.

The payment description contained just two words.

[Abortion fee.]