Chapter 4

My mind went completely blank. All I heard was ringing in my ears.

“Who cut off the payments?” I asked through gritted teeth.

A nurse’s voice came through the phone. “It was Ms. Saunders who called. She said that she was pulling the funding and told us to discharge the patient immediately.”

I snapped my head and glared at Serena.

She looked back at me with a smug expression while twirling her phone in her hand.

“You hear that? That’s what happens when you step out of line.

“Here’s the deal, Charlie. Apologize to Jack and Nat loudly three times. Only then will I feel generous enough to let your father stay in the hospital another two days.”

“Serena, that’s a human life! How can you be this heartless?”

I screamed at her with veins bulging in my neck and my eyes bloodshot from rage.

She smoothed her hair and said with a nonchalant tone, “Heartless? You brought this to yourself.

“The money is mine. I’ll spend it on whoever I want. I can throw cash at Jack, and I can just as easily refuse to fund your deadbeat dad.

“This isn’t against the law. Keep stalling, and your old man is going to die before you know it.”

Nathaniel covered his mouth and snickered on the side.

Jack, still in his arms, kept barking at me as if mocking my powerlessness.

“Come on, Charlie, just apologize already. It’s not like your pride is worth anything. If you apologize sincerely enough, Rena might just throw you some cash to buy an urn.”

I gazed at the woman I had once loved with all my heart, and all I saw was a stranger who repulsed me.

I never knew a person’s heart could sink to such depths of cruelty.

“I’m not going to apologize. Serena, you’re going to regret this,” I said through gritted teeth, enunciating every word.

With that, I charged through the crowd without hesitation and ran downstairs as fast as I could.

I could hear Serena’s furious shrieks behind me.

“Charlie, don’t you dare walk out that door! You leave now, and you won’t see a dime from me! Let’s see how you’re going to save your dying father now!”

I ignored her completely and ran desperately to the roadside to hail a cab.

By the time I reached the hospital, my father had already been moved into the hallway.

Several tubes hung limply by the bedside, and the monitoring equipment had long been removed.

My mother was slumped on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.

“Dad!”

I rushed over and reached out with trembling fingers to check his breathing.

He was still breathing, but faint.

I let out a breath of relief.

I turned toward the nurse’s station and shouted, “Doctor! Someone help! We need a doctor!”

The head nurse, Wilma Cura, gave me a cold, indifferent look.

“How are we supposed to treat him without payment?

“Ms. Saunders made it very clear that any hospital that admits your father will be going against the Saunders Group.

“Don’t take it personally. We’ve got bills to pay, too.”

I looked hopelessly at the indifferent faces around me.

For the first time, I realized just how helpless it was when the whole world turned its back on me.

This was Serena’s tactic.

She wielded absolute power in Verdant City. She could destroy someone like me without breaking a sweat.

Just as I was about to pull out the black card I had kept hidden all along, my phone rang.

It was an unfamiliar number.

When I answered it, a calm, steady male voice came through on the other end.

“Am I speaking with Mr. Charlie Southard? My name is Winston. I’m the butler of the Gunter family in Metropolis.

“Mr. Edmund Gunter heard you were in some trouble in Verdant City. He sent me personally to bring you and your family to safety.

“The helicopter is already waiting on the hospital rooftop. Please bring your father up immediately.”

The Gunter family? As in the wealthiest family in Metropolis?

I was stunned.

Then, I remembered that I had inadvertently saved the life of the Gunter family patriarch, Edmund Gunter.

He had not revealed his identity back then.

To my surprise, it had been him all along!