Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Please... water...”

The hoarse voice crept through the morning breeze, so weak that it almost blended into the sound of rustling leaves.

Ameena stopped in her tracks. The firewood basket on her back suddenly felt unbearably heavy. Her breath caught. Behind the wild bushes of the forest on the outskirts of the city, a man’s body lay helplessly sprawled across the wet ground, which was stained with a thick pool of dark red blood.

Ameena’s heart immediately began pounding. Her legs trembled violently. The man was lying face down, his face completely unrecognizable. The skin on his face was battered, covered in bluish bruises, fresh blood, and hardened, dried mud. His nose was broken, his cracked lips were bleeding, and severe swelling covered nearly all of his facial features. Not a single part of the man’s face looked normal. He was completely battered.

“Oh, God...” Ameena whispered in horror, dropping her basket without a second thought.

She knelt beside the man. Blood was still seeping from beneath his black shirt, which was torn around the chest and abdomen. Without hesitation, Ameena tore away the remaining filthy fabric of his shirt with the strength she had left, then pressed firmly against the gaping gunshot wound to stop the blood that continued to flow. The man groaned softly, his body convulsing as he endured the excruciating pain.

“Hold on... please, hold on...” Ameena’s voice trembled, her tears nearly spilling as she looked at the horrific condition before her.

The man parted his cracked lips and released a hoarse whisper that was barely audible.

“Water... I’m thirsty...”

Ameena looked around in panic. The forest was silent. There was no river, no clean puddle of water, and she had forgotten to bring a bottle of water. She felt around in her clothes pocket, but it was empty. The man’s throat was already parched, his breathing short and labored, signs of severe dehydration and massive blood loss. If he did not receive fluids immediately, this man would die within minutes.

Panic pierced Ameena’s chest. Time was running out. In the desperation that gripped her, her instincts as a breastfeeding mother took over. She had no other choice. Her bodily fluid was the only source of life available in the middle of this silent forest.

With her hands trembling violently and her cheeks burning with overwhelming embarrassment, Ameena unbuttoned her shirt. She exposed her breasts, which felt full and swollen from her abundant milk production, then brought her dizzy head close to the man’s face.

“I’m sorry... please hold on,” she whispered hoarsely.

She offered her nipple to the lips of the dying man. The touch of skin and the warmth of the flowing milk immediately triggered his body’s basic instinct. Unconsciously, despite being half-conscious and in tremendous pain, the man’s lips immediately responded. His jaw closed, and his first strong suck began.

The man drank greedily, his body’s natural reflex responding to the sweet liquid that soothed his burning throat. His eyes remained tightly shut, his brows drawn together as he endured the pain, yet his sucking grew deeper. Ameena closed her eyes, letting out a suppressed whimper as a strange sensation spread through her chest, allowing the unknown man to drink her breast milk in order to keep himself alive.

Less than three minutes after the man began nursing, the cellphone in Ameena’s pocket rang loudly, shattering the silence of the forest.

Ameena jolted. She immediately pulled away and hurriedly straightened her clothes while breathing heavily. With trembling hands, she answered the phone call from home.

“Hello, Mom?” Her voice on the other end was immediately followed by the piercing cries of a baby.

(Ameena! Come home quickly! Your child has a very high fever, and it won’t go down! He keeps crying and calling for you. His body is so hot, Ameena!)

Ameena’s world suddenly collapsed.

“Oh, God... Alby!” she cried out in panic.

Her panic doubled. Her one-year-old son was seriously ill at home. She had no more time.

Without even checking whether the battered man had fully regained consciousness, Ameena grabbed her firewood basket and ran as fast as she could, leaving the forest behind, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Not long after Ameena’s silhouette disappeared behind the trees, the roar of a helicopter engine and the screeching of car tires shattered the silence of the path at the edge of the forest. A group of burly men in black suits, automatic weapons in their hands, ran swiftly toward the area.

“Boss! Over here! We found Boss!” their panicked shouts echoed.

They lifted Damien’s limp body. Damien slowly blinked, his eyes feeling unbearably heavy, his vision blurry and clouded with blood. He could still feel the remnants of warmth and sweetness lingering on his lips, but he was far too weak to even open his eyes properly or recognize the person who had just saved his life from the brink of death.

The hospital was noisy, and the pungent smell of medicine stung Ameena’s nose. Ameena sat weakly in a chair in the emergency room corridor. Inside the room, her son, Alby, lay weakly on a hospital bed with an IV needle inserted into his tiny hand. The doctor had just come out and said that Alby had contracted a gastrointestinal viral infection common among one-year-old children, requiring intensive treatment and expensive medication.

Ameena reached into the pocket of her skirt. She pulled out her worn-out wallet. There were only a few crumpled banknotes inside. It was not even a quarter of the hospital administration f*e that had to be paid that very night.

“What am I going to do... Oh, God, where am I supposed to find this much money?” she murmured desperately, tears falling onto her lap. Her hands clenched the hem of her own clothes, feeling like the most useless mother in the world because she could not afford her child’s treatment.

Amid her overwhelming confusion, her eyes accidentally caught the television screen mounted on the wall of the hospital waiting room, which was broadcasting the local news. A breaking news headline suddenly caught her attention.

(BREAKING NEWS: The Leonardo Family Residence Is Opening Limited Job Opportunities! Urgently Seeking: A Special Wet Nurse to Breastfeed the Sole Heir of the Mafia Family. Mandatory Requirements: Abundant Breast Milk Production, Good Health, and Willingness to Live Permanently in the Main Mansion. Salary and Compensation Are Extremely Generous!)

Ameena was stunned. The payment displayed on the screen was enormous—an amount she could not even save in ten years of working as a laundry laborer. The extraordinary payment would be enough to pay all of Alby’s hospital bills, and even more than enough to secure their lives in the future.

She stared at the screen, then turned toward the treatment room where her son lay weakly.

“There’s no time to think twice. Whatever the risk, I have to apply for that job tomorrow morning. Even if I have to leave my child,” she said to herself.