Chapter 4

Later, “Waiting” sent a sixty-second voice note, but I didn’t play it. I slammed my laptop shut and rushed over to the toilet, vomiting until there was nothing left. I thought my heart had long gone numb to the pain, yet it still felt like it was being torn open by a blade.

I never used to understand why Sarah had a contact named “Waiting.” Now, I finally knew. She was waiting for me to divorce me and marry Mark.

My heart felt crushed. It wasn’t that I was unfit to be a father at all; Sarah was simply looking for a scapegoat to justify her own infidelity!

While I was still covered in filth, my mother-in-law called in a panic, saying that Lily had a fever. There was no time for sorrow. I threw on a clean shirt as fast as I could and rushed over to pick up Lily for a doctor’s visit.

By the time I arrived at the hospital, Lily was already lethargic from the high fever. However, there wasn’t a single bed available in the emergency room.

I burst inside, only to see Mark posing for photos and shooting a video where he was visiting underprivileged children, occupying every single emergency bed. I pleaded with Mark for help, but he sneered and turned me down outright.

“This is the show Sarah is working on! We have a hundred thousand viewers watching nationwide right now. Do you really expect us to give up a bed for your kid alone? Where are your professional ethics as a reporter?”

Looking at Lily’s flushed, feverish little face, I begged the doctor to save her.

As the doctor hesitated nervously under the camera lens, Mark—wearing spotless leather shoes—stepped just out of the frame. He closed the door to the emergency room, brought his shoe down, and ground his heel right onto the palm of my hand.

“Ah!” The excruciating pain made me scream.

“Useless trash! You couldn’t beat me in getting stories, you couldn’t keep your woman from me, and now you’re using this little bastard to play the pity card?”

As he spoke, he raised his foot and kicked the six-month-old Lily in my arms!

I instinctively shielded the baby tightly against my chest. Mark’s foot slammed right into my chest over my heart, and I couldn’t help but let out a muffled groan.

Suddenly, the door opened wide.

“Harry, what on earth are you doing lying on the ground with Lily?” Sarah asked in disbelief, freezing Mark dead in his tracks.

Mark’s eyes flickered, and he instantly switched to make himself look like the victim.

“Sarah, I’m so sorry. I was just filming the charity promotional video with the orphans, but Harry came in here with Lily to cause a scene and stop me from visiting the kids.

“I knew this was your show, so I didn’t want to argue with Harry. I didn’t think he’d disregard the child’s health and set her right down on the floor? You know how I am. I just can’t bear to see children suffer…”

Sarah’s face grew grimmer by the second, her initial hesitation shifting into a burning rage.

“Harry! What kind of father are you? How could you put a six-month-old baby on the floor?”

Gasping for air after taking that hard hit to the chest, I couldn’t utter a single word. I could only raise my hands with all my strength, trembling as I held our child up toward Sarah.

Mark quickly stepped between us, wearing a worried look. “The children from the orphanage and the camera crew have been waiting for ages. My ankle was already swollen and throbbing today, and if it weren’t for our show, I would’ve given up and laid down long ago…”

His words made Sarah’s gaze turn cold.

“Stooping so low as to use our child to play the victim? You really do have no limits! Mark and I are taking care of orphans, yet you’re doing everything you can to sabotage us! Come on, let’s head back inside and keep shooting. As long as we don’t fall for his sob story, he’ll eventually take the child back home.”

With that, Sarah ushered Mark—who was faking an ankle injury—back into the emergency room and slammed the door shut.

For some reason, as Sarah watched Mark recite his lines according to the script for visiting the orphans, she felt strangely uneasy. Yet the moment she remembered me using Lily’s supposed illness to put on a show, she pushed that unsettling feeling aside.