The Beginning Of A Cold Revenge

"Lie!” Tere screamed hysterically. She gripped the doctor’s collar with trembling hands.

“You said the surgery would save her! I already paid! The money was there! Ana is just sleeping, right?! She only passed out!”

“We’re sorry, Mrs. Tere...” The doctor lowered his head helplessly. “If the patient had been brought to the hospital just thirty minutes earlier, before the bleeding spread... she might still have had a chance of surviving.”

Those words struck Tere’s heart. Xandes. He was the one who had refused to bring Ana. He was the one who had walked past Ana’s body. He was the one who had blocked all her cards, leaving her delayed at the administration desk.

“Ana...” Tere let out a faint cry. Her body collapsed onto the cold corridor floor.

“Mrs. Tere!” The nurses rushed to catch her, but Tere pushed them all away.

Tere crawled through the operating room doors. In the sterile, freezing room, Ana’s small body lay motionless beneath a white sheet.

Tere pulled the sheet away with trembling fingers.

Ana’s tiny face was deathly pale. There was no longer any soft breath. No longer was there the sweet smile that usually greeted Tere every morning.

“Ana...” Tere’s voice broke into heart-wrenching sobs. She gathered her daughter’s cold body into her arms, pressing her cheek against Ana’s lifeless chest. “Wake up, sweetheart... Mommy brought the money... Mommy paid for your surgery... Open your eyes, baby...”

There was no answer. Only silence.

“Forgive Mommy...” Tere screamed through uncontrollable sobs. “Forgive Mommy for not getting you here sooner... Forgive Mommy...”

With the last of her strength, Tere reached into the pocket of her dress for her phone. She dialed Xandes’s number.

The first call... was redirected. The second call... was rejected. The third call... went unanswered.

Tere kept pressing the call button dozens of times, but Xandes consistently ignored her. The man had cut off every means of access to him.

Tere stared at the phone screen as it slowly went dark. The tears covering her face gradually dried. The pain crushing her chest suddenly hardened into a mass of hatred.

Every bitter memory from the past two years raced through her mind. Ever since Felicia and Cleo had returned from abroad, Xandes had changed completely.

The man who had once spoiled Ana terribly, the man who would panic at the slightest cough from his daughter, had suddenly become a cold stranger.

Xandes had missed Ana’s birthday to accompany Cleo to buy toys. Xandes had canceled a family vacation because Cleo had a slight fever. And last night, Xandes had allowed his own biological daughter to bleed to death on the floor just to take Felicia’s child, who had suffered nothing more than a minor scrape.

Xandes was no longer a father. The man was the murderer of his own child.

Tere kissed Ana’s cold forehead one last time.

“Mommy promises you, Ana...” Tere whispered, her voice firm. There was no desperation left. Her eyes burned with hatred. “Mommy will never beg that man for anything again. Whoever made you suffer tonight... Mommy will make sure they pay the price until there is nothing left.”

The next morning, the funeral took place beneath an overcast sky that seemed to mourn alongside them.

Tere stood motionless in front of the mound of wet earth. Her black dress stood in stark contrast to her pale face and lifeless red-rimmed eyes.

Across from the grave, a luxury car came to a stop. Xandes stepped out with Felicia and Cleo.

The man approached the grave with an expressionless face. There were no tears. There was not even a trace of guilt in his eyes. Felicia stood faithfully beside him, holding Cleo’s hand as the boy stared at the gravestone in confusion.

After the burial ceremony was complete and the mourners began to leave, Xandes approached Tere. “I know this is hard for you, Tere,” Xandes said without the slightest hint of remorse.

Tere raised her face and stared at Xandes with an empty, cold gaze.

Xandes let out a long sigh, as though his daughter’s death were nothing more than an administrative inconvenience disrupting his schedule.

“Regardless, Ana is gone. This was simply her fate.”

Tere did not answer. Her fingers clenched beneath the fabric of her dress.

“Don’t dwell on your grief for too long,” Xandes continued casually, completely unaware of how cruel the words that had just left his mouth were. “We’re still young. We can have another child someday to replace Ana.”

Tere’s world seemed to stop spinning the moment she heard those words.

Replace Ana?

To Xandes, his own daughter’s life was nothing more than a broken possession that could be replaced at any time.

Tere stared at Xandes for a long time. The hatred burning in her chest suddenly transformed into an incredibly cold sense of satisfaction.

A great truth that Tere had kept tightly hidden all this time suddenly surfaced in her mind.

Three years ago, following the horrific car accident Xandes had suffered, a doctor had told Tere something she had kept to herself ever since. Xandes’s reproductive organs had suffered permanent damage. The man had been diagnosed as completely sterile for the rest of his life.

Xandes would never be able to have another child.

Ana was the only descendant, the only flesh and blood Xandes had ever had and would ever have in this world.

Tere had kept that secret all this time solely to preserve her husband’s dignity as a man. But today, Xandes’s own foolishness and cruelty had just destroyed his bloodline.

Tere looked at the man in front of her, the corners of her lips lifting slightly into the coldest and most terrifying smile she had ever shown.

“You’re right, Xandes,” Tere said softly, her voice utterly flat. “You should remember your words today.”

Xandes frowned, finding his wife’s change in tone strange, but he waved his hand dismissively. “Good. I’m glad you understand.”

Tere turned around, her back facing Xandes, Felicia, and her daughter’s grave. She walked away without looking back even once.

Xandes had just killed his only descendant for another woman’s child, and Tere would make sure that when he eventually realized the truth, his regret would become the most torturous hell he would ever endure for the rest of his life.