My Daughter Was Neglected For Another Woman's Child

"ANA!"

Tere's scream broke through the air when she saw her daughter's small body tumble down the stairs and crash onto the marble floor with a horrifying impact.

Thud!

In an instant, it felt as though Tere's entire world had stopped turning. Her eyes remained fixed on the fresh red liquid that began pouring from her daughter's forehead.

"Ana...?"

Tere ran down the stairs as fast as she could. Her bare feet and the long nightgown she was wearing repeatedly caught on the edges of the steps, but she paid no attention to them.

The pain in her feet was nothing compared to the fear that slammed into her chest. She dropped to both knees on the cold marble floor, then pulled the small, limp body into her arms.

"Sweetheart... Wake up, baby... Mommy's here..." Tere's voice trembled violently, nearly drowned out by her overwhelming panic.

Ana's tiny face, which was usually always cheerful and filled with laughter, was now pale. Her eyes were tightly shut. Fresh blood continued to flow from her temple, seeping between Tere's fingers and dripping onto both of their clothes.

With violently trembling hands, Tere gently patted Ana's cheek, which was beginning to feel cold. "Ana, open your eyes, sweetheart. It's Mommy, baby. Please... just open your eyes for a moment..."

Tere's tears rolled down her cheeks, blurring her vision. Just seconds ago, Ana had still been standing near the stair railing with Cleo, the son of a woman named Felicia. Everything had happened so quickly. Cleo, who lost his balance, had managed to grab onto the stair railing, while Ana was pushed and fell freely down the stairs, hitting one step after another.

The hurried, heavy sound of footsteps came from the dining room. Tere quickly turned her head, breathing heavily. Xandes, her husband, ran toward them with a tense expression. A flicker of hope immediately filled Tere's suffocating chest.

"Xandes! Hurry!" Tere screamed as she tried to straighten herself, holding Ana even tighter. "Ana fell down the stairs! She hit her head really hard! We have to take her to the hospital right now!"

But that hope was shattered instantly. Xandes did not look at her at all. The man's footsteps simply passed right by, moving past Ana's blood-soaked body lying in Tere's lap. Xandes knelt directly beside Cleo, who was sitting there crying while holding his left arm.

"Cleo! Are you okay, son?" Xandes's voice was filled with overwhelming panic. It was a tone of concern and fear of losing someone that Tere had never once heard him use for his own daughter. "Where does it hurt? Tell Uncle, where does it hurt?"

Cleo shook his head with tears in his eyes, quietly sobbing. "It's just... just a little scrape on my arm, Uncle..."

Without the slightest hesitation and without checking Ana's condition first, Xandes bent down, wrapped his arms around Cleo, and lifted the child into his warm embrace.

"Don't be afraid. Uncle will take you to the hospital right now. Uncle won't let anything bad happen to you."

Tere stood frozen in place. Her breath caught in her throat. Her eyes moved from Xandes's warm expression as he held Cleo, then dropped to Ana's limp, helpless body in her arms.

Ana's blood continued to seep out in greater amounts, soaking Tere's dress and the palms of her hands.

"Xandes..." Tere's voice grew softer, hoarse and trembling from the depth of her shock. "Cleo isn't the one who's seriously hurt. Look at Ana!"

Tere raised Ana's body slightly, revealing her daughter's forehead and head, which continued dripping blood onto the floor. "Ana is unconscious, Xandes! She's the one who fell from the top of the stairs! She needs medical attention right now!"

At her lowest point, Tere still held on to hope. She waited for her husband to realize his mistake, turn his face toward their daughter, and take Ana from her arms so they could rush her to the emergency room.

But Xandes only glanced at her briefly. His eyes, fixed on Tere, were cold, piercing, and filled with hatred.

"This is all because you don't know how to raise your child properly."

Tere's chest felt as though it had been struck by an enormous blunt object. "What... did you say?"

"If Ana hadn't pushed Cleo from the top of the stairs, none of this would have happened!" Xandes scolded harshly and coldly.

"Ana didn't push Cleo! They were standing close to each other and fell, but Ana was the one who took the impact and was thrown down the stairs!" Tere cried hysterically, desperately defending her daughter. "Xandes, look at Ana! She's not even breathing properly! Look at your own child!"

"Enough, Tere!" Xandes stood upright, tightening his arms around Cleo, who merely winced softly despite having no significant external injuries. "If you had raised your child properly and taught her some manners, Cleo wouldn't have been hurt like this!"

Those harsh words completely destroyed what little strength and patience Tere had left. Her tears flowed even more heavily down her cheeks.

"She's your biological daughter, Xandes..." Tere whispered, her lips trembling violently. Her hands, covered in fresh blood, rose into the air as she tried to reach for the hem of her husband's pants and beg him. "Please... take Ana to the hospital. Take her first... Save our child's life..."

Instead, Xandes stepped backward. The man avoided Tere's bloody hands as though his wife's fingers were a disgusting, filthy stain.

"Take care of your own child," Xandes said coldly without looking back even once. "I have to take Cleo to the hospital now. Felicia entrusted Cleo to me. If anything happens to Felicia's son, I will never forgive you for the rest of my life."

"Xandes! Don't go! Xandes, come back!"

Tere's hysterical screams echoed throughout every corner of the room, but they could not stop the man's footsteps. Xandes walked quickly through the front door of the magnificent mansion, completely turning his back on his own daughter, who was fighting for her life in Tere's arms.

Tere held her daughter's cold body alone, accompanied by unimaginable heartbreak.

"Ana... Hang on, sweetheart. Mommy is begging you, hang on a little longer..."

Tere realized she had no more time to grieve or place her hopes in the devilish man who had just walked away. With the last bit of strength remaining in her body, Tere pulled Ana's tiny body tightly into her embrace. She stood on her violently trembling legs, wiped the tears blurring her vision with her shoulder, then ran outside into the cold darkness of the night.

At the edge of the main road, directly in front of the quiet Smits residence, Tere stood hysterically waving her hand, which was covered in dried bloodstains. A passing taxi finally slammed on its brakes and stopped directly in front of her.

"Please! Sir, please take us to the nearest hospital!" Tere said as soon as she roughly opened the taxi door.

The taxi driver inside immediately widened his eyes in shock when he saw Tere's disheveled clothing and the small child lying limp and covered in blood in her arms.

"Oh my God, ma'am! What happened to that child..."

"Please drive now, sir! I'm begging you, my daughter could die if we're late!" Tere interrupted through heavy sobs, her body shaking violently in the back seat.

The taxi sped through the empty city streets. In the back seat, Tere continued holding Ana's body, pressing her cheek against her daughter's cheek, which felt colder with every passing moment. She continued whispering prayers and words of comfort without stopping until the car came to an abrupt halt in front of the Emergency Department entrance.

"Prepare the operating room now! The patient has severe bleeding in her head!"

The voices of nurses and doctors merged in mounting tension as Ana's small body was transferred from Tere's arms onto an emergency stretcher. Tere ran barefoot beside the rapidly moving stretcher, gripping Ana's tiny, limp fingers tightly as they lay completely devoid of strength.

A male doctor in full medical attire emerged from the examination room with an extremely tense and serious expression. "Are you the mother of the pediatric patient named Ana?"

"I'm her mother, Doctor! Please tell me, how is my daughter?!"

"The impact to her head was extremely severe and caused serious trauma. There is a significant amount of internal bleeding in her brain," the doctor said quickly and urgently. "We need to perform emergency brain surgery as soon as possible to save your daughter's life before the pressure gets worse."

Tere nodded without the slightest hesitation, not caring about the cost or anything else at that moment. "Do it, Doctor! Do whatever needs to be done, as long as my daughter survives and wakes up again!"

The doctor let out a short breath while pointing toward the corridor on the left. "Complete the initial administrative payment and surgery deposit at the cashier now so our medical team can immediately proceed with the surgery."

Tere ran toward the administration desk at the front. Her trembling hands opened the zipper of the small bag she had managed to grab while running out of the house. She took out a debit card from the family's joint account, which was normally used to cover household expenses.

"Miss, please process the surgery payment using this card," Tere said quickly, her breath coming in short gasps.

The cashier took the card and inserted it into the EDC machine on the desk. Several seconds passed in tense silence until a sharp rejection tone sounded.

System Declined: Transaction Failed.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, the card was declined. Could you please try using another card?" the cashier asked politely.

Tere's heart suddenly began pounding. A terrible feeling started to haunt her. She took out a credit card in her own name that was directly linked to Xandes's primary account. "Use this one! Please hurry!"

The cashier tried entering the second card into the billing system.

TRANSACTION DECLINED.