Chapter 5

His eyes turned bloodshot in an instant.

He looked far too dirty, far too disheveled. His rubber boots were torn to shreds from hiking miles of rough mountain trails, and his face was smeared with mud and rainwater.

In the eyes of these finely dressed high-society guests, he didn't look like a father trying to save his daughter. He looked like a lunatic, a vagrant.

Without warning, a security guard slammed a heavy baton viciously against his head. Blood gushed out immediately, staining his graying hair crimson.

"Dad!"

My soul shattered into pieces. I began to cough until blood spewed, choking on my words into unintelligible cries.

Charles, acting completely oblivious to the violence, held a vice-like grip on my arm, sharply berating me. "Margo, stop making a scene! Apologize to Nicole right now! You were the one who started this!"

He couldn't see a daughter's heart breaking into a thousand pieces nor did he give a damn about anything I cared about. The only thing on his mind was keeping the peace for his elite crowd.

Nicole sobbed. "She thought the charity donation was too small, so she pushed and hit me! Charles, I’m so scared..."

A girl with short hair grabbed a thick stack of cash and hurled it straight at my face. "Aren't you just obsessed with money?! Stop pretending to be some pure-hearted martyr! You're worse than a streetwalker, at least they put a clear price tag on themselves!"

However, I didn't want to explain anymore.

"Call 911... please, call an ambulance!" Scalding tears spilled over my cheeks and splashed onto the back of Charles' hand.

"Margo..." He hesitated.

Chaos and shouting filled the room.

After what felt like an eternity of deafening noise, he suddenly tossed his blind cane aside, speaking with heavy gravity. "Margo, the truth is, I’m actually a Cooper—"

"Charles!"

Nicole interrupted him, snatching a folded document straight out of my coat pocket.

"Margo has been lying to you this whole time! She thinks you're poor and blind, so she already made up her mind to abort the baby!"

Shocked gasps echoed across the entire hall.

"Margo, you don't even deserve to be a mother! Murdering an innocent life just for a bit of money!"

There stood Nicole, draped in haute couture worth millions and dripping in seven-figure jewelry, passing righteous judgment on me. Meanwhile, as a late-stage cancer patient, I couldn't even afford basic prenatal vitamins.

Yet Charles didn't care about any of that truth. He grabbed my arm with crushing force, his voice raw and shaking. "You... Is it true?"

In that moment, perhaps I was far too quiet for him to realize the agonizing, life-threatening pain tearing through my body.

"Yes. I'm not giving birth."

Charles' face turned deathly pale. He slammed his cane down beside my feet, sending wooden splinters flying everywhere.

"Margo, I really never imagined you were such a shallow, cold-blooded person."

With those final words, he turned around and strode out of the venue without looking back once.

A burst of hysterical laughter spilled out of me, and I laughed until I struggled to breathe and tears streamed down my cheeks. I just couldn't believe his blinding stupidity and cruelty.

Someone's teeth chattered in sudden panic. "My god, there's so much blood! Is she going to die?!"

Nicole let out a disdainful smirk, waving her hand to lead her crowd away.

"Who cares about her? She’s not even worthy of licking my shoes! The game's over anyway. Whatever happens to her is none of our business."

Trembling, I fished out my phone and dialed 911 first to get help for my dad. Then, using the last thread of strength left in my fading body, I dialed that secret number.

"Dr. Jones, I can't hold on any longer. Take the baby out, and put me into that trial."

The voice on the other end gave a swift, solemn agreement.

Right before I was rolled into the operating room, my phone vibrated frantically on the tray.

It was Charles' ringtone.

I watched quietly as the screen lit up, dimmed, and lit up again. Once, twice, ten times...

Only when the nurse softly nudged me did I calmly pop out the SIM card and throw it into the trash.

As the anesthesia was pushed into my IV line, my breath quickened, my heart raced, and the monitor screamed with a shrill alarm.