Chapter 5

I turned around with difficulty.

The sunlight was blinding, casting extremely long shadows of the three people on the steps, like a giant black net enveloping me.

My mother wore impeccable makeup today, and her well-tailored suit was without a single wrinkle.

With just the right amount of worry on her face, she walked quickly down the steps in her high heels and reached out to help me.

“Ethan, the reporters are all waiting in the conference room. Come in with Mom, let’s clear up the misunderstanding, okay?”

I coldly dodged her outstretched hand and leaned against the cold wall to barely keep my balance.

“Dr. Hart,” I said, panting, staring intently into her hypocritical eyes, “speak plainly.”

The mother's perfect smile froze for a moment, but she quickly regained her dignified and awe-inspiring appearance.

"I'm doing all this for the good of our family!"

"Don't be ungrateful!" My father said in a low voice, his face darkening.

Liam, who had been hiding behind them, immediately stepped forward. His eyes were red and he pitifully tugged at his mother's clothes.

"Auntie, I'm not taking the medicine anymore... Let's give Ethan back the chance, it's all my fault."

"Don't talk nonsense, you barely escaped with your life!" His mother said with heartache, pulling Liam into her arms.

When she turned to look at me, her tone softened instantly, filled with a nauseating pleading: "Ethan, Mom knows she was wrong. Let's talk this out behind closed doors, okay?"

As I watched their masterful performance, the excruciating pain in my internal organs ironically made my mind incredibly clear.

Last night's post has ignited a firestorm online, with netizens' anger reaching the pharmaceutical company's doorstep. Investors are withdrawing their funding, and the hospital is exerting pressure.

She wasn't there to care whether I lived or died. She was there to save her crumbling reputation.

"Fine." I swallowed the metallic taste of blood churning in my throat and coldly forced a smile. "I'll go."

That promise became the only force propelling me forward. I dragged my broken body behind that "loving" family of three.

At the end of the corridor, the heavy conference room door was pushed open.

Countless blinding flashes of light erupted instantly, like a premeditated execution.

At the long table, Liam sat down close to his mother. I dragged my feet and chose the corner furthest away from them.

The reporters immediately shoved their cameras and microphones at them.

Speaking into the microphone, the mother's eyes were slightly red, and her voice trembled just right: "As a researcher, I may have been too rational and neglected the child's feelings."

She took a deep breath and looked at me tenderly: "But as a mother, I love Ethan deeply..."

As she spoke, she reached across the table and tried to take my hand, right in front of everyone.

Without hesitation, I abruptly pulled my hand back.

"Click, click!" The camera flashed wildly, precisely capturing her hands frozen in mid-air and her embarrassed expression.

“Mr. Ethan,” a reporter immediately shoved a microphone at my mouth, “don’t you agree with what your mother said?”

Looking into my mother's warning eyes, my chest heaved, and I chuckled softly.

“I agree. My mother did love her children very much.” I paused, my gaze sweeping over Liam with a sharp intensity. “But the child she loved was him.”

The conference room fell into a deathly silence.

Facing the flashing lights, I said, word by word, "Of course, you can also interpret this as my mother loving more her reputation, which she always has to gain at the cost of my life!"

"Bang!"

My mother slammed her hand on the table and stood up. Her carefully drawn eyebrows and eyes were twisted with extreme anger, and the rage in her eyes almost burned me through.

I looked her straight in the eye without backing down: "You say there shouldn't be any special treatment, fine, I accept that!"

The metallic taste in my throat grew stronger and stronger, and I gritted my teeth and forced it down.

"So even though I was in excruciating pain from the experiment, I still queued up alone to register and pay the fees, and lay in the cold chemotherapy room until dawn all by myself!"

I pointed sharply at the trembling Liam and roared, "But what about him?! Every time he goes for a check-up, you personally take him through the fast track and get him an appointment with the best specialist!"

"The new medicine he's taking now was obtained at the cost of my liver, my kidneys, and my life!"

"What exactly do you want?!" The mother suddenly overturned the chair, the solid wood table clattering loudly as it hit the table.

"What do I want?" I gripped the edge of the table tightly, using the last of my strength to stand up.

My vision was starting to go black, and my internal organs felt like they were being completely crushed, but I still stared intently at the camera.

"A doctor who used her own son as a human experiment—" With my last breath, I uttered this resounding question to the entire society, "Would you still dare to let her treat your illnesses?!"

The entire place erupted in chaos!

Reporters, like sharks smelling blood, surged forward, their camera shutters clicking incessantly.

Liam covered his ears and screamed and cried. The hospital leaders, sweating profusely, shouted for security to maintain order.

But I couldn't hold on any longer.

Darkness instantly engulfed all my senses. Everything went black before my eyes, and I fell straight backward.

"Wow—" A mouthful of black blood gushed out of my mouth, staining my white shirt red.

Terrified screams erupted from the scene.

With my vision blurred, I did not hear my mother's cries for help.

She panicked and, like a madwoman, pushed through the crowd, waving her arms wildly at the reporters: "Stop taking pictures! Don't take pictures! He's faking it! He's just trying to gain sympathy!"

The next second, she grabbed my blood-stained collar and half-lifted me up.

"You little devil! You're so scheming!" Spit flew across my face, my mother's features contorted like a demon. "You're deliberately trying to ruin me, aren't you?!"

The blinding flashlight illuminated her extremely selfish and distorted face.

In my final moments, as I watched the camera precisely capture this ugly scene, I surprisingly smiled with a sense of relief.

What I want is to die together with you.

"Get out of the way!" Dr. Anderson roared as he broke through the crowd.

My collar came undone. I slammed heavily onto the floor.

The dull thud of the defibrillator pressed against my chest again and again, the electric current tearing through my body, but it could no longer bring my heartbeat back.

The piercing alarm of the monitor shattered the atmosphere in the conference room.

That undulating curve eventually turned into a glaring straight line.

"Ethan Hart, male, twenty-four years old..."

Dr. Anderson's desperate sobs faded into the distance.

"He was pronounced dead at 10:47 a.m. after all resuscitation efforts failed."