Chapter 4

The ward was unnervingly quiet.

It was so quiet that the rhythm of the IV drip was almost audible.

Andy stared at the test report, his brow drawn tight.

Then, bit by bit, his expression collapsed.

“What does this mean?” His voice was stretched taut.

I looked at him and calmly read out the conclusion on the page. “You’ve been confirmed as infected with HIV.”

“What?”

He jerked his head up to look at me, confusion flooding his eyes. “Say that again?”

I didn’t explain further. I simply pushed the report a little closer to him, letting the highlighted lines fall fully into view.

Infection confirmed. HIV.

His breathing went noticeably ragged.

“That’s impossible…”

He shook his head instinctively. “The test has to be wrong. I’ve always been healthy. I do comprehensive checkups every year. How could I…”

Halfway through, he suddenly stopped, as if something had finally clicked.

It had to be because of that girl—the one he had kept close, whom he kept calling “clean,” “innocent,” “nothing like those other women.”

And because of the way he had indulged himself during that time.

The color drained from his face, turning an ashen, lifeless white.

“Janet…” he murmured her name, real panic breaking through his voice for the first time.

“It was her, wasn’t it?”

I didn’t answer.

I simply sat there quietly, watching him move from denial, to suspicion, to total collapse.

“She clearly said…”

His voice began to tremble, his fingers crushing the report until it nearly tore.

“She said she was clean. She said she never slept around…”

“Ellen.”

He looked up at me, his eyes filled with panic. “Tell me this is a misdiagnosis, alright? Let’s test again. Please.”

I looked into his eyes and was pulled back to many years ago.

Back then, when he insisted on being with me despite being someone his family never approved of, they froze all his funds.

Left to fend for himself, he was nearly wiped out by investors.

Burning with fever, he had clutched my hand and said, “Ellen, don’t leave.”

Back then, with my eyes red, I transferred every cent from my account to him. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay with you.”

It was only after we married that I learned his family had never cared who he married.

That so-called opposition had merely been a whim—a bet he made with people in his circle.

A bet on whether he could trick me into falling for him.

I gently withdrew my hand.

“It’s already been retested,” I said calmly. “The result hasn’t changed.”

It was as if all the strength drained from him at once. He slumped heavily back against the headboard.

“It’s over…” He stared at the ceiling, murmuring. “This time it’s really over…”

For him, it truly was.

The head of a vast capital empire—once news of his HIV infection got out, the stock price, the board, investors, public pressure… any one of those could drag him into the abyss.

Not to mention that this illness, even if controllable, could never be completely shed.

He would live his entire life under its shadow.

“Will I die?”

He suddenly turned to look at me, his voice trembling.

I met his gaze.

The once untouchable man now looked like someone drowning, desperately grasping for a last lifeline.

“If you take your medication on schedule and follow proper treatment, you won’t die anytime soon.”

“That’s good…”

As if clutching a life-saving rope, he repeated it twice, then abruptly remembered something.

“And you?”

He looked at me, real fear appearing in his eyes for the first time. “Ellen, are you alright?”