Chapter 2

Returning home, I went straight into the study and locked the door.

The cold light from my laptop screen illuminated my face, making the surrounding silence feel even heavier.

Relying on my memory, I logged into the hospital's electronic patient archive system, trying to retrieve Liam's complete medical records and medication history from three years ago.

I typed Liam's name into the search bar, but the system only pulled up a few pages of irrelevant, routine check-up reports.

All details regarding the resuscitation on the day of the accident three years ago, the medication batches, and even the emergency room handover sheets were completely gone.

The screen coldly displayed: "Insufficient Permissions" or "File Archived and Cleared."

Kevin was the heir to this hospital group; he had more than enough authority to wipe every trace clean.

The more flawless the records seemed, the more it proved there was a hand behind that accident, desperately trying to cover everything up.

I closed the laptop and leaned back in my chair.

Since I couldn't find the digital records, my only breakthrough would have to come from Kevin himself.

The next morning, Kevin put on his suit as usual, kissed my forehead, and told me he had a full day of executive meetings at the corporate group.

A few minutes after his car pulled out of the driveway, I grabbed my keys, got into my old sedan that I rarely drove, and followed him from a distance.

I kept a distance of two or three cars, watching as he drove out of the city.

He didn't go to the corporate headquarters at all. Instead, he parked in front of a secluded, semi-open-air café.

I parked my car on the next block, put on my sunglasses and tucked my hair into the hood of my jacket, choosing a corner seat hidden by lush outdoor plants.

It wasn't long before a familiar figure in a trench coat hurried inside.

It was Sarah.

She walked straight over and sat down opposite Kevin.

My seat was separated from theirs only by a wooden louvered partition. The café was quite empty in the morning, and with a little focus, I could clearly hear their deliberately lowered voices.

Sarah was visibly agitated, stirring her cup rapidly. "But what if the cord blood extraction fails? Jack started having nosebleeds again yesterday. Kevin, you promised me he would be fine."

"I'll handle it, just like I did three years ago," Kevin's voice remained steady.

"Three years ago..." Sarah took a deep breath, her fingers tightening around the edge of the table. "Three years ago, we got lucky. When the IV room mixed up the medication and caused both boys to have a toxic blood reaction at the same time..."

"That wasn't luck, Sarah." Kevin chimed in. "There was only one dose of the specific antidote left in the pharmacy at that time. I chose to save our child. I sacrificed Liam. I had to do it because I love you both. It's the same now. I promise you, I will definitely save Jack."

Sarah fell silent for a few seconds, her voice growing faint and trembling. "I know... I know the match list had Liam's name on it. You gave Liam's medicine to Jack. I've been having nightmares every night for years..."

"It's okay, Sarah, no one will ever know," Kevin comforted her. "I rewrote the entire handover manifest from that day. All the resuscitation records will only show that Liam couldn't be saved due to sudden, spontaneous organ failure. In this world, no one else knows whose veins that medicine actually went into. Emma is being very obedient right now. Everything will go smoothly."

Kevin walked over to Sarah's side, pulling her into his arms and gently stroking her hair. He looked like the world's best husband and the best father.

On my side of the wooden blinds, there was only silence.

Those cruel fragments of their conversation pieced together a horrifying truth in my mind.

The IV room mixed up the medication.

Two children poisoned at the same time.

Only one shot of the antidote left.

During the medical accident that took my son's life three years ago, Sarah's son, Jack, had been there too.

Faced with two children whose lives hung equally by a thread, Kevin—as Liam's father—used his power and wealth to bribe the doctors, secretly transferring the antidote meant for Liam into Jack's body.

Then, he personally forged the medical record declaring Liam dead from organ failure.

Liam didn't die from an unsalvageable accident. His life force was forcibly cut off by his own biological father, traded to save the life of his bastard son.

The rich aroma of roasted coffee drifted through the café, but I found it agonizingly difficult to breathe.

A violent spasm seized my stomach, and I had to cover my mouth fiercely to keep from letting out a single sound.

The profound grief Kevin displayed after the accident, the work he pushed aside to help me through the pain of losing our son, the affectionate way he held me tightly in the dead of night—those were once the pillars that kept me alive.

They murdered my first child, and now they were targeting my next one.

I desperately wanted to ask him: When you did all this, did you hesitate for even a single second?

On the other side of the partition, Kevin was still softly comforting Sarah.

Sitting in the shadows, my whole body turned icy cold. I could feel something incredibly solid within my life completely shattering.