Chapter 4

I stood there, frozen and speechless.

In my past life, I stubbornly insisted on transferring her, and all I got was her cold, stiff corpse in the back of an ambulance.

Remembering that soul-crushing grief made my chest tighten until I could barely breathe.

"Doctor, I want to transfer my mom."

"Given her current stats, can she survive the drive to the nearest medical center?"

Hearing my question, the nurses and surgical staff looked at me like I had lost my mind.

"Ma'am, your mother is in critical shock. Every second counts. Why on earth would you move her?"

"Don't you know who Dr. Miller is? He's the top cardiothoracic surgeon in the state! You have the best in the room and you want to look elsewhere?"

My head spun.

I screamed inside my mind: *Lily, you said this doctor was incompetent!*

Lily fired back instantly:

[He was great before, but not today!]

[He’s going to make a critical slip during the procedure that stops her heart permanently!]

[Stop stalling! Moving her now is her only shot!]

Every instinct told me to trust my best friend.

Yet the memory of Mom dying on that cold stretcher,

coupled with the monitors beeping frantically behind the doors, told me I couldn't gamble with her life again.

If I put her in an ambulance, she would die on the road just like before!

Gritting my teeth, I made the hardest call of my life. "Please, Dr. Miller. Do whatever it takes. Start the surgery!"

Dr. Miller nodded grimly, already scrubbed in.

The heavy doors sealed shut.

Lily kept cursing inside my head, calling me reckless, calling me an idiot.

I didn't answer. I dropped to my knees on the cold tile, praying with every fiber of my being for Mom to pull through.

Two hours later.

Dr. Miller stepped out, his face completely pale, and slowly shook his head at me.

The surgery... had failed.

Mom was gone. Her heart had stopped forever.

A bottomless abyss of guilt and agony swallowed me whole.

The shock crushed my chest, and darkness pulled me under.

I didn't wake up until the next morning, roused by Lily's frantic sobbing in my mind:

[Babe, wake up! Please!]

[I know you panicked yesterday, and it's not your fault you didn't trust me. Don't blame yourself.]

[But you have to listen to me this time! Terminate your business contracts with Mr. Vance immediately! His firm is about to collapse, and if you're tied to him, you'll lose the company, go bankrupt, and end up with nothing!]

I dragged myself up on the hospital bed.

Biting the inside of my cheek until I tasted copper, I forced myself to stay awake through the blinding grief.

Lily was right about one thing—I couldn't afford to break down.

Mom was gone, but Dad was still here, and my baby was still here.

I had to protect what was left of my life!

In my previous life, ignoring Lily’s warning about Mr. Vance drove me into bankruptcy and got me beaten to death by loan sharks.

I couldn't make the same mistake twice.

Now fully convinced of Lily's foresight, I spent the night liquidating assets to pay the massive contract cancellation penalty and severed all ties with Mr. Vance.

Once the paperwork was finalized, I breathed a sigh of relief and poured myself into organizing Mom's memorial service.

A few days later, I woke up to a brutal notification:

My company was bankrupt!

Paying that exorbitant contract penalty had drained all our liquid reserves.

And Mr. Vance, whose business had supposedly collapsed in my past life, had just closed a massive tech merger. Furious at my sudden breach of contract, he used all his leverage to deliver a fatal blow to my cash-strapped company!

"How did this happen?!"

"Lily, you told me dropping Mr. Vance was the only way to save the business!"

"Why did I still lose everything?"

"Answer me! Say something!"

Silence.

No matter how hard I screamed, Lily didn't make a sound.

Panicked, I bolted toward the front door to head to the office.

The moment I opened it, the exact same gang of loan sharks from my past life stepped out of the shadows, blocking the hallway.

They shoved past the threshold, demanding immediate repayment on the business loans.

I didn't have a dime left.

Furious, they began throwing punches, slamming me against the walls.

In the chaos, my temple cracked hard against the iron frame of the hallway fire hose cabinet.

Excruciating pain exploded in my skull, and my vision blurred into static.

The cold dread of death closed around my throat once again!

I couldn't wrap my head around it!

Two lives. Six different choices.

And yet, every single road led to the exact same graveyard!

Why was I always the one cornered and murdered in the end?

As the debt collectors kicked my ribs, hopeless despair tore me apart.

My consciousness began slipping away.

Then, out of nowhere, an overlooked detail struck my brain like a lightning bolt!

I got it.

I finally figured out what was wrong!

I finally understood why every choice I made was a deadly trap!