Chapter2

Rain washed the blood from my face, but the stench of the slum's sewers had now become my guiding beacon.

I smashed through the rusted iron door, stumbling and crawling into the underground clinic.

"Chloe, the medicine! Hurry!" I handed over the glass vial I had been clutching to my chest, still warm with my body heat.

Under the peeling surgical light, Chloe immediately turned to draw the liquid. The needle pierced Lily's pale, frail arm, and the clear fluid was slowly pushed into her vein.

The heart monitor's rhythm steadied briefly for two seconds.

Then, a piercing alarm suddenly blared. Lily's thin body violently arched, and a mouthful of black blood splattered across the snow-white sheets. The monitor's waves plummeted, plunging toward the flatline of death.

"This isn't targeted therapy! It's a high-concentration hemolytic agent!" Chloe's face turned deathly pale, the syringe dropping from her hand to the floor.

Victor's condescending gaze flashed through my mind. He had deliberately thrown the medicine on the ground for me to pick up—not out of charity, but to enjoy the pathetic sight of me treating poison as hope.

"Get the dialysis machine! We need a blood transfusion, now!" Without a split-second pause, Chloe grabbed a tourniquet and tied it around her own arm. "Take mine, I'm type O."

"But your condition..." I took a step forward.

"Shut up and hold her down!" Chloe bit her lip, brutally shoving the thick needle into her own vein.

Deep red blood flowed down the tube toward Lily. Taking advantage of this gap, Chloe dialed a black-market dealer with one hand. "I'm selling that backup ventilator. Yes, I need cash now. Send over two bags of plasma immediately!"

Only the dull roar of the blood filtration machine remained in the clinic. Watching Chloe's swaying figure from blood loss, my nails dug deeply into my palms.

Just as her vital signs were about to stabilize, a massive crash shattered the basement's silence.

The reinforced iron door was kicked flying, smashing heavily into the medicine cabinet. Glass shards and pills scattered all over the floor.

Blinding flashlight beams swept across the dim room as several hulking bodyguards flooded the narrow corridor. The sound of high heels crushing broken glass was exceptionally grating.

Elena covered her nose and mouth with a silk handkerchief, stepping over the threshold with utter disgust in her eyes.

"The air in the slums is truly nauseating." She glanced at Lily on the bed, a mocking sneer curving her lips. "It seems you've already received Young Master Victor's 'gift'."

I lunged forward, shielding the hospital bed.

Smack!

Elena raised her hand and landed a heavy slap on my face. Tearing at my freshly fractured wounds, my vision blurred for a moment.

"What? Going to bite?" Elena shook her hand dismissively. "A pathetic leech, did you really think Victor would be merciful enough to give you the real cure?"

Her gaze shifted to the weakened Chloe, and she let out a cold laugh. "And you, an unlicensed back-alley quack, think you're worthy of playing the saint here?"

"Get out." I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth, my voice sounding like grinding sandpaper.

Elena acted as if she had heard the biggest joke in the world. She pulled a stamped document from her designer bag and threw it directly into my face.

"Look closely, Arthur. As your lawful wife, legally speaking, I am also this little cripple's guardian."

She took a half-step back, her eyes turning instantly ice-cold.

"Smash it. Clear out all illegal medical equipment not authorized by the guardian."

Like machines receiving a command, the bodyguards swung their baseball bats at the running dialysis machine. Sparks flew, and the blood transfusion tubes connecting Lily and Chloe were brutally torn apart.

Chloe was dragged to the floor by the immense force, her forehead striking the metal bed frame, blood streaming down.

"Stop!" I roared, lunging at the bodyguard smashing the machine, but I was pinned down hard onto the freezing concrete floor by three others. A combat boot once again stomped onto my back, nailing me in place.

"Does that break your heart?" Elena walked to the wall and pulled down the main power switch without hesitation.

The entire clinic plunged into dead, silent darkness.

Stripped of power, the backup ventilator stopped working. Lily's faint gasps were infinitely magnified in the dark, every breath sounding like the pulling of a broken bellows.

"Ten minutes." Elena nudged my face with the tip of her shoe. "Without oxygen and dialysis, she won't last ten minutes."

I stared fixedly at the silhouette of Lily convulsing in pain in the darkness, my heart feeling as though it were being crushed by iron hands.

"What do you want?" I gave up struggling, letting the bodyguard's knee press down on my spine.

Elena retracted her foot in satisfaction, looking down at me from above.

"Young Master Victor is in a good mood tonight. The underground boxing ring in the south of the city is missing a punching bag for warm-ups."

She bent down, her voice dripping with undisguised malice.

"A life-and-death match. The rules are simple: you can only take hits, no fighting back. If you can survive ten rounds without dying, Young Master Victor will reward you with the best life-support system in the city."

Lily's breathing grew weaker and weaker, and the heart monitor let out the long wail of impending death. Chloe let out a despairing sob in the dark.

I closed my eyes, hiding the sanity that was collapsing deep within my pupils.

When I opened them again, I swallowed down every ounce of humiliation and rage.

"Fine. I'll go."