Chapter 1

Mike Reed stood right beside Ivy Traynor now, the two of them so close and intimate they looked more like a perfectly matched couple.

Ivy pressed her lips together and avoided my gaze, her voice hoarse.

"Three years ago, during a free medical clinic, there was a landslide. It was Mike and his mother who risked their lives to dig me out. They never asked for anything in return… Now that his mother is sick, I can't just stand by and do nothing."

She paused for a while, then added casually, "Your mother is already old anyway. She wouldn't have lived much longer. It's better to let her make her final contribution."

I looked at her in utter disbelief.

The woman I had shared a bed with for five years now felt completely like a stranger—cold, alien, unrecognizable.

A doctor… actually said something so heartless.

Since my mother-in-law's accident, Ivy hadn't even come to see her mother once. And yet, she had cut out her mother's heart and given it to Mike's mother.

All this time, I thought she was so ruthless she would even trade her own mother's heart for a favor owed. I never imagined… she simply thought that was my mother.

The whole situation was absurd enough to make anyone laugh.

"Ivy!" I dug my fingernails into my palm. "My mother never wronged you. What right do you have to do this? And the person who saved you back then was—"

Before I could finish, I was interrupted.

Mike's eyes turned slightly red.

"Thomas," he said softly, "I know someone like you—a rich heir born with a silver spoon—looks down on people like us from the countryside. You have plenty of people around you. But I only have my mother. If you're really unhappy, take it out on me."

He raised his hand and slapped himself again and again across the face.

Ivy grabbed his hand immediately, her voice gentle.

"Mike, you don't need to apologize. This has nothing to do with you."

Then she turned to me, her tone sharpening instantly.

"I never realized you were this vicious.

"Mike is nothing like someone as malicious as you. He's always kind. Even after his mother's surgery was completed, he was still worried your mother might get sick, and even begged me to donate your mother's organs to others. Shouldn't you learn something from him?"

My voice turned sharp.

"Ivy, what right do you have to make this decision?"

Her eyes were ice-cold.

"I've already signed the consent form. The body has already been taken away."

Looking into those indifferent eyes, I only felt a chill spread through my entire body. My heart twisted in unbearable pain. I really pitied my mother-in-law.

Ivy's father had cheated—my mother-in-law had left with nothing, raised her alone with great hardship, and brought her up with care and devotion. And yet, in the end, this was what she got.

I straightened slowly, staring straight at Ivy.

"Ivy," I said, "you will regret this."

My mother-in-law treated me exceptionally well. Ever since I married Ivy, she had treated me like her own son.

How could I just stand by and watch her suffer like this?

But Ivy was now a world-renowned expert in Helmer City—someone with immense influence and countless people willing to work for her.

I was just an ordinary man. How could I possibly go against her?

I tried contacting the media. But every platform gave me the same response: "Sir, we cannot take this news."

With no other options, I could only post the truth online.

But the post didn't even survive a minute before my account was banned.

There was no doubt—it was Ivy's doing.

"Stop wasting your effort. You can't beat me."

Her voice came from behind me.

I turned around and saw her standing there. There was even a trace of helpless indulgence on her face.

"Thomas, can't you just let this go?"

I clenched my fists so tightly my nails pierced my palms.

"No way."

I had already found out the truth. My mother-in-law's condition was never serious. It was only a minor surgery—there was absolutely no way it should have led to death.