Chapter 1

“Grandpa, is the surgery going to hurt?”

The feel of Ben Xander’s small hand on my leg snapped me out of my daze.

I looked down at his pale face and pulled him into my arms, sobbing.

He was still so young.

How could he have died in a hospital bed?

As I held him, my mind went back to the question that had haunted me even after death.

Where had the money I paid the hospital gone?

I’d personally checked the card before handing it over. I knew the money had been there.

The thought made my heart jump.

I immediately grabbed Ryan and took him to an ATM.

The balance was right there.

Twenty thousand dollars.

Only then did I breathe a little easier.

Ryan and I went straight to the hospital cashier’s desk and handed the card to the billing clerk on duty.

“Once we pay this, the surgery can go ahead tomorrow, right?”

I watched with my own eyes as he ran the card and processed the payment.

Only when he told me it had gone through did I finally relax.

“Thank God. Ben’s going to be okay.”

Ryan wrapped his arms tightly around me.

“Dad, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Ben had a rare condition, and the only surgeon qualified to perform the procedure had to fly in from Burgola.

She was as kind as she was talented. She hadn’t asked for anything extra, only told me to make sure the surgical fee was paid as soon as possible.

But in my last life, no matter how hard I tried, the hospital could never find any record of my payments.

Ben’s surgery kept getting delayed until it was too late.

This time, I wouldn’t let the same thing happen again.

I told Ryan to go home and get some rest while I stayed overnight with Ben.

The next morning, I’d barely opened my eyes when Ryan called.

He sounded frantic.

“Dad, the hospital says your payment never went through! They just called and told me we need to pay immediately.

“If we don’t, they’re canceling Ben’s surgery!”

For a second, my mind went completely blank.

I thought I’d misheard him.

How could this be happening again?

Before I could even hang up, a doctor hurried into the room.

“You need to get down to the hospital cashier’s desk right now. If you don’t pay, we won’t be able to do the surgery in time.”

There was no time to think.

I ran straight to the cashier’s desk.

But when the billing clerk pulled up Ben’s account, there was no record of any payment.

Impossible.

Ryan and I had checked the card ourselves yesterday.

The money had been there.

I demanded a printout and went through every line, one by one.

Ben’s information was correct.

But there was still no record of the payment.

I lost my temper.

“Something’s wrong with your hospital!

“There was twenty thousand dollars on that card when I gave it to you yesterday! Give me my money back! That money is supposed to save my grandson’s life!”

Everyone waiting nearby turned to stare.

Within seconds, a crowd had gathered around us.

The billing clerk’s face flushed red.

“Sir, you can’t make accusations like that. Every transaction in our system is tracked. There’s no way anyone here could take a cent of your money.”

He turned the screen toward me.

“Look for yourself. Since your grandson was admitted, there hasn’t been a single payment made on his account. We’ve already made an exception by letting him stay this long without payment.

“There are other patients waiting for beds. Please stop causing a scene.”

The other families assumed I was harassing the billing clerk and started crowding around me, telling me to leave.

I was too old to argue with that many people.

Before long, they’d pushed me all the way to the entrance.

I stood there helplessly, staring back at the cashier’s desk.

My mind was completely blank.

After a while, the billing clerk sighed and came out to get me.

He took me into an office and pulled up the hospital’s main billing system.

“Sir, look. The system clearly shows that no payment was ever made.”

I shook my head desperately.

“I came here yesterday afternoon. Check the security footage. I know I was here.

“My son was with me. We even checked the balance at an ATM before we came.”

He reluctantly contacted his supervisor and got approval to review the footage.

The security video confirmed that Ryan and I had indeed gone to the cashier’s desk.

But the camera angle wasn’t clear enough to prove that the card I handed over was the same one we’d checked at the ATM.

I still refused to give up.

I demanded that they keep looking.

Finally, the billing clerk lost his patience.

“Sir, if you really believe something happened to your money, then call the police.”

That was exactly what I intended to do.

The police might catch something everyone else had missed.

But before I could even get through to them, Ryan called again.

His voice was hollow.

“Dad, you ruined everything.

“The surgeon booked a flight back to Burgola. She leaves in two hours.

“Ben’s surgery is off.”