Chapter 3
Cassandra's POV
"Where's Lily?!"
I rushed into the children's hospital emergency room.
The nurse at the station was startled by me: "Who are you?"
"I'm her mother! Where is she?!"
Through the ICU window, I saw Lily lying on the hospital bed, her tiny body surrounded by tubes. Her stomach was swollen like a balloon, her face pale as paper.
My heart nearly stopped.
"Are you the patient's family?" Dr. Rodriguez approached me. "We just finished emergency surgery."
"What happened to her?" I grabbed the doctor's white coat.
"Acute liver failure with severe ascites." The doctor pulled out test results. "The child needs an immediate liver transplant, or she has at most one month to live."
My legs gave out: "Surgery costs..."
"Three hundred thousand dollars, payment required within a week," the doctor glanced at my disheveled appearance. "Hospital policy."
$300,000.
The $8,000 in my arms instantly became a mockery.
"Doctor, please!" I almost dropped to my knees. "She's only four... I can pay in installments..."
"I'm sorry, full payment required before surgery."
Just then, Lily's weak voice came from the ICU: "Mommy... my tummy hurts... when can I go home?"
I rushed into the room and gripped her cold little hand, tears flooding my eyes.
"Soon, baby, mommy's taking you home very soon."
5 AM, outside Blackwood Corporation headquarters
I knelt on the steps, soaked through by rain and snow.
This place used to be my home. Five years ago, I waited here every day for him to get off work, bringing him hot coffee. Now I knelt here like a beggar, waiting to beg my ex-husband for life-saving money.
At exactly 7 o'clock, the black Bentley appeared on schedule.
The car door opened and Damien stepped out, frowning when he saw me.
I rushed forward and dropped heavily to my knees in front of him.
"Damien! Save Lily!"
"You again." He looked at me coldly. "Eight thousand wasn't enough last night? How much do you want now?"
"Three hundred thousand!" I screamed while kneeling in the snow. "Lily needs liver transplant surgery! She's DYING!"
Passersby stopped to watch, some raising phones to film.
"Is some orphanage bastard worth all this?" Damien's voice was ice-cold.
"She's not a bastard!" I raised my head, voice breaking. "Lily is your biological daughter! Your blood runs in her veins!"
Damien's face darkened instantly.
"My daughter?" He laughed coldly. "Cassandra, you still DARE say such things?"
"She's your flesh and blood!" I crawled to his feet. "The DNA test must be wrong! Lily can only be your daughter!"
"Test wrong?" Rage flared in Damien's eyes. "Are you saying I can't recognize my own CHILD?"
"I never betrayed you!" I desperately explained.
"ENOUGH!" He kicked me away and I slammed into the steps. "Stop this act!"
I struggled to get up, my reopened knee wounds bleeding again: "I'm not acting!"
"Not acting?" Damien stepped closer, demanding angrily, "Then explain why I found you NAKED with some random man in OUR bed?"
Every word stabbed my heart like a knife.
That nightmare flashed before my eyes again. Lily had just turned one month old, and I thought our marriage finally had hope. Until Serena asked me to meet at a café, claiming she wanted to make peace, but drugged my drink instead.
She orchestrated everything—the strange man, our bed, and Damien "accidentally" walking in. More viciously, she hinted that even Lily might not be his child. Damien believed her and got a DNA test, but the results were already tampered with by people she'd bribed. From that moment, he completely cut off his feelings for his daughter.
"That wasn't real!" I screamed hoarsely.
"Not real?" He laughed coldly. "I saw you two NAKED together with my own eyes!"
"I was DRUGGED!" I cried desperately. "Someone SET IT ALL UP!"
"Drugged?" Damien's voice was full of mockery. "You can even come up with that excuse?"
"You shameless WHORE!" His voice grew colder. "Still dare play innocent in front of me?"
"Even if you hate me!" I cried while kneeling at his feet. "Lily is innocent! She's only four!"
"Innocent?" Damien looked down at me. "Does a bastard's life even matter?"
"She's about to DIE!" I screamed desperately.
"Good. This world doesn't need more bastards."
"She's YOUR daughter!"
"SHUT UP!" Damien suddenly grabbed my chin, squeezing so hard I gasped in pain. "I'm warning you for the last time—don't mention that bastard again!"
I couldn't speak from his grip, tears streaming down continuously.
"Want three hundred thousand?" His face came close, voice cold as ice. "Want to save that little bastard?"
I nodded frantically.
"I'll do ANYTHING!" I choked out. "I can be a dog, I can disappear, just please save her..."
Damien stared at me for a long time.
Just when I thought he'd agree, he released his grip and I crashed back onto the steps.
"Anything?" A cruel smile played at his lips.
"Yes! ANYTHING!" I said desperately.
"Good." He said softly. "I do have a proposition."
