Chapter 1

My heart seized in my chest.

Howard York had been sent on a work assignment three months ago, and ever since, this was the kind of reply I had received every single day.

When I was injured by a piece of falling debris from a high-rise building, I clutched my bleeding leg and sent him a message. He replied instantly.

[Rest up. Stay hydrated.]

When my manager cornered me in the parking garage and verbally harassed me, I broke down in tears and messaged him, pleading for help. He replied instantly.

[Don’t be scared. Everything will be okay.]

Even on the night our daughter suffered an anaphylactic shock, I stood outside the ICU, my hands trembling as I begged him to hurry home. Still, he replied instantly.

[Trust the doctors. She will pull through.]

Right now, my phone vibrated again, displaying that same cold, distant reply.

I stared at those words on the screen and suddenly burst out laughing. However, as I laughed, a bitter, metallic taste filled my mouth. Outside the emergency room, I received the same generic, AI-generated response with every message I sent him.

He always claimed he was too busy and too tied up with work to step away. Since the day he left for his assignment, my entire world had been reduced to these automated replies, and along with my heartbreak, fear, and helplessness, they consumed me whole.

As my daughter, Lily York, was wheeled into the operating room, I paced the hospital hallway like a ghost. Driven by anxiety, I decided to look for the attending doctor to ask about her condition. However, as I got to the door, my feet froze in place.

A familiar voice was coming from inside the office. It was the voice of the husband I had missed day and night yet never got to see—Howard.

“Howard, is this really worth it?” The doctor hesitated. “After all, she is your biological daughter. If your wife ever finds out…”

My breath instantly hitched, and my whole body turned to stone.

A faint sigh came from inside the room. “She will never find out.”

He paused, his voice heavy with exhaustion. “I didn’t want things to come to this either. But Jolene broke her arm in the fall and lost too much blood. She has an extremely rare blood type, and no one else in the city is a match. Aside from Lily’s, we have no other choice.”

“But you’re gambling with a child’s life here. What if something goes wrong during the surgery?”

“As I said, she won’t find out.” His voice turned cold and firm as he cut the doctor off instantly. “I’m drawing the blood right now and sending it over to her hospital as soon as possible. As for Riley, keep her distracted for me.”

“Keep me distracted?”

I shoved the door open. Both men inside froze at the same time, their faces draining of all color as they stared at me. As I stepped into the room, my eyes locked dead on my husband's panicked expression.

He instinctively tried to hide the blood bag in his hand. The label on it read: Rh-null, Pediatric, Emergency Dispatch.

“What did you just say?” I asked, my voice shaking terribly.

Tears refused to fall, but my insides felt like they were being ripped apart.

“Say it again! What did you mean when you said you had no other choice aside from taking Lily’s blood? Did you orchestrate this car accident yourself?”

His lips trembled as he reached out, trying to grab my hand. “Riley, listen to me. Things aren’t what you think–”

“She’s our daughter!” I screamed, and the pent-up frustration of countless days and nights erupted along with the overwhelming hatred I felt in that moment. “She’s only four! She’s lying on that operating table with her life hanging by a thread! As her father, not only did you not come to check on her once, but you were secretly plotting to steal her blood just to save that female coworker you went hiking with?”

“I just had no other option!” Driven into a corner, Howard’s eyes turned bloodshot. “Jolene only went up there because of me. I couldn’t just stand by and let her die!”

“But you can stand by and let Lily die?”

I grabbed the medical chart off the desk and hurled it at him. Pages flew everywhere as I roared, “You’re sleeping with her, aren’t you?”

He avoided my gaze, falling silent. At that moment, as I looked at him, he suddenly seemed like a stranger to me. The last hope I had held onto died, along with that bag of blood.

Suddenly, the door to the operating room opened, and a nurse rushed out in panic. “Lily York’s family? The patient is hemorrhaging and urgently needs a blood transfusion!”

I looked at that bag of blood and lunged for it like a madman. However, he shoved me to the floor, pulled off his belt, and bound my hands and feet tightly. Then, he tore off a strip of heavy-duty tape and sealed my mouth shut.

I shook my head frantically. Tears blurred my vision as a desperate sob escaped my throat.

He covered my eyes, his voice trembling. “The entire city is sourcing blood. It will take ten minutes at most. Riley, Lily can wait…”

He frowned, a fleeting trace of hesitation crossing his eyes.

Suddenly, the intercom rang. The moment he heard the call, he let go and rushed off.

“But Jolene can’t wait any longer.”

I curled up on the freezing floor, listening to the nurse screaming frantically in the distance. “Lily York’s family?”

Yet, all I could do was desperately twist my wrists until they were raw and bleeding, and blood trickled from the corner of my mouth.

A few minutes later, the nurse announced, “Lily York’s family? I’m sorry, but she didn’t make it.”

In that instant, my entire world fell silent.