chapter 5

Low murmurs rippled through the crowd of onlookers, who had caught our earlier conversation.

“Every family has its challenges. Choosing to end a pregnancy isn’t easy,” someone remarked.

“That’s true,” another said. “But the baby isn’t even born, and a living man needs saving.”

Someone else commented, “If it were me, I’d save my husband. Didn’t you hear her say that she didn’t want kids in the first place?”

“She’s only using the child and her health as excuses,” a fourth voice concluded.

Another person argued, “But people have two kidneys, and losing one still affects one’s health.”

Even so, the crowd remained surprisingly even-handed; not everyone rushed to take the Sorrells’ side.

Sensing the wavering verdict, Autumn raised her voice, tears streaking her cheeks. “Aunt Margaret has only this one son. If you refuse, she and Uncle George will not survive the blow. Vivian, Colin cherishes you. How can you think only of yourself?”

As she spoke, Autumn nudged Margaret, and the cue was clear. Margaret and George sprinted up the stairs toward the second floor.

My in-laws straddled the second-floor railing. George glared down at me, eyes bloodshot. “Refuse, and we’ll jump. We welcomed you into our home and treated you with kindness, yet you would watch us die?”

Margaret’s voice splintered against the walls. “I treated you like a daughter, tending to your every need. How can you be so heartless?”

Panic surged through the hallway. Nurses, orderlies, and patients rushed forward, pleading, “Please, don’t do anything rash—you’ll kill yourselves. If you die, who will look after your son?”

Autumn clamped both hands around my sleeve, her knuckles ghost-white with panic. “Vivian, please—don’t just stand by while your mother and father-in-law die!”

Dropping to her knees, she struck her forehead on the tiles.

“Have a heart. Colin once pulled you back from the brink; without him, you would already be dead.”

A cold glint flashed behind my eyes.

I only stayed with Colin because I believed I owed him my life.

After my father died, the company rested on my shoulders alone, and each night I worked until the city fell silent. One such night, as I unlocked my door, a man lunged from the shadows, a knife catching the streetlight in a silver flash before pressing against my throat. “Hand over all the money!”

I handed over every note in my purse, yet his eyes crawled over me, hungry for more than money.

While I struggled, helpless, Colin stepped out of nowhere like sunrise after a storm and chased the thug into the dark.

In that moment, he felt like the sun dissolving every shadow in my world.

Only after the flames consumed me did the truth crawl out: the entire rescue had been a performance, and Colin stood before the furnace, mocking the woman he had lured to her doom.

“Idiot, do you even know who robbed you that night? My distant cousin,” Colin scoffed. “I paid him about a thousand to stage the attack, and out of it I walked away with nearly ten million in inheritance.”

Autumn might have skipped that part, but I remembered—and neither she nor the accomplice would walk away unscathed.

When my in-laws threatened suicide, the onlookers who seconds earlier had defended me pivoted in an instant.

Someone cried, “Save your husband. His parents have nowhere left to turn.”

“Exactly,” another said. “You can have another baby. He saved your life, so don’t be ungrateful.”

Hands even grabbed my arms as the person urged, “Tell them you’ll give up a kidney before anyone dies. Filial duty comes first.”

I tore free of the person’s grip, letting rehearsed misery flood my face as tears streamed down my cheeks.

“All right,” I sobbed. “I’ll terminate the pregnancy and donate a kidney to Colin.”

Triumph flickered across George and Margaret’s eyes, but I cut their celebration short.

“But only if every asset I ever signed over to Colin is transferred back to my name.”