The Debt of a Borrowed Heart

My father stopped Winnie Sage in the middle of the road.

He dropped to his knees without hesitation, his entire body trembling as he bowed again and again.

"Winnie… Yvonne can't hold on much longer. I'm begging you… Please show mercy and let her go."

Inside the car, Winnie sat leisurely, slowly turning the ring on her ring finger.

"I can let her live. Just tell me where Andy Warren is," she said calmly.

My father's face drained of all color. His lips moved, but no words came out.

Winnie laughed mockingly.

"Your wife is on the brink of death, and you're still protecting your son. The Warren family really is just as disgusting as it was six years ago."

Flustered, my father stammered, "It's not like that. Andy, he…"

He must have wanted to tell her everything, but then, he remembered my final plea before I died, so he hesitated.

Winnie scoffed.

"Save your excuses. He's just a coward who doesn't dare to face me."

She added coolly, "That's fine. I'll force him out myself."

She glanced at the driver and said casually, "Drive."

The car roared forward.

My father was still kneeling on the ground. He had no time to dodge. His body was thrown into the air, then slammed violently onto the asphalt.

Blood splattered everywhere, staining the road red.

My vision went black.

"No!"

I rushed forward like a madman to lift my father, but it was useless.

From inside the car, Winnie looked down at his blood-soaked body with cold indifference.

"Even now, your son still won't show up. What a wuss.

"Don't worry. This is only the beginning. I'll make Andy understand the price of betraying me."

I collapsed beside my father, numb, kneeling there for a long time before whispering, "I didn't betray you…"

I did not disappear because I chose to. I disappeared because I was already dead.

Winnie and I had grown up together. We were childhood sweethearts.

Everyone said we were a perfect match, destined to be together, until six years ago.

The Sage family went bankrupt. Winnie's heart condition relapsed, and she lay unconscious in a hospital bed.

After she narrowly survived, what awaited her was news that I, her husband, had fallen in love with someone else and moved abroad.

My father stood by her hospital bed, looking down at her coldly.

"The Sage family is finished. You're no longer worthy of my son."

She could not accept it.

On a stormy night, rain pouring down, Winnie ran to my house, crying and begging to see me just once.

However, I never came.

None of us expected that in just five or six years, that battered girl would rise again, bringing the Sage family back from ruin.

She would then crush the Warren family beneath her feet.

After running my father down, Winnie went to the hospital.

In the ward lay my mother, Yvonne Warren. She had stopped treatment days ago and was barely clinging to life.

Winnie smiled, her expression filled with mockery.

"Isn't Andy supposed to be the most obedient son? Why hasn't he come to see you?"

My mother looked at Winnie with exhaustion and sorrow, then slowly closed her eyes.

That single gesture enraged Winnie.

She sneered and said, "Even if he hides forever, I'll still find him."

'You won't find me anymore, Winnie.'

Six years ago, I signed a heart donation agreement and closed my eyes forever.

'My heart now beats inside your chest.'

The very last thing I did before I died was kneel before my parents and beg them to keep that secret.