Chapter 3

The doctor issued the third critical condition warning.

"Twelve hours left. After that, there is nothing more we can do."

I pressed my face to the glass and looked at Charlotte.

Her small face was pale as paper, her lips turning purple, her body curled up in the hospital bed like a wounded kitten.

She was only five years old. She loved drawing. She loved hugging her stuffed bunny. Every single day she asked me when Daddy was going to come hold her.

She had done nothing wrong. And yet she had to suffer all of this.

I wiped my tears. When I lifted my eyes, they were cold.

Alexander , if you won't save her, I will crawl to your feet and die in front of you before I give up on my daughter.

I hailed a cab and rushed toward the private island.

At the dock, bodyguards cut me off.

"Mr. Alexander's orders. No one is allowed near."

I fell to my knees. "Please , I'm begging you. Let me see Alexander. My daughter is dying. He's the only one who can save her!"

I slammed my forehead against the ground until blood ran down my face. My voice was gone. The bodyguards exchanged uneasy looks.

A yacht pulled up to the dock.

Alexander stepped off. When he saw me, his expression darkened like a storm.

"Jones. Are you done yet?"

He strode over and grabbed me by the collar, the force of it crushing against my throat.

"I'll say this one more time. I am not donating stem cells."

"Sophie is pregnant with my child. I can't risk anything happening to me. Who's going to take care of her and the baby?"

Pregnant.

So he had his first love back. And now a new child on the way.

Then what was Charlotte?

What was the little girl who had spent five years longing for him, calling him Daddy for five years?

"Alexander, she is your biological daughter! You knew she was allergic to strawberries, and you sent a strawberry cake anyway. You did this on purpose!"

I screamed. Tears poured down my face.

His eyes flickered. Then they went hard.

"So what if I did? Charlotte was born weak. She's been nothing but a burden. The world would be better off without her."

"All I want is Leandro. Sophie and my new child. Charlotte never deserved a place in my life."

Never deserved.

That shattered the very last illusion I had ever held.

Sophie walked out from behind him, leaning into his side, looking down at me with a smile that cut like glass.

"Jones, you never had a chance against me. If I hadn't gone abroad back then, you would have never had a place in his life at all."

"Charlotte was always a burden. Better that she dies and makes room for my child."

I was shaking with rage. I lunged toward her. Alexander threw me off and I crashed hard into the rocky ground. The back of my head smashed against the stone and everything went dark for a moment.

"Jones, if you touch Sophie, I will make sure you die right alongside Charlotte!"

He wrapped his arms around Sophie and boarded the yacht. They left. And I was sealed inside my despair.

Rain came down in sheets, mixing with blood and tears on my face. Bitter. Salty. Cold.

I dragged myself up and made my way back to the hospital one step at a time, each step like treading on broken glass.

I knew it now.

The last hope was gone.