Those looks were like needles, stabbing me until I had nowhere left to hide.

Just then, Vanessa started a video call.

I immediately ran to a quiet stairwell to answer, thinking she was finally going to apologize, finally going to explain.

But on the screen, the first voice I heard belonged to Caleb.

Weak, aggrieved, and pitiful.

"Vanessa, don't delay anything important because of me... Mr. Tully will be angry..."

Vanessa quickly turned the camera toward herself.

She lowered her voice, a trace of irritation in it.

"He has a fever. He's alone. I can't just leave him there."

I looked at the familiar hotel room behind her, my voice shaking.

"And my mother? She's in the emergency room. She has no one either."

Vanessa was quiet for a moment.

Then she said something that chilled me from head to toe.

"You have relatives there. You have doctors. It isn't as bad as you're making it sound.

"Evan, don't use an old woman's health to guilt-trip me."

Guilt-trip.

In her eyes, my mother's life hanging by a thread was nothing but a bargaining chip I was using to pressure her.

That was the first time I realized she did not fail to understand my pain.

She simply did not believe my pain mattered more than Caleb's.

When the emergency procedure ended, the doctor told me my mother had stabilized for the moment.

But she needed further intervention as soon as possible. A family member had to sign immediately and prepare the fee.

I searched through my accounts, and my heart sank inch by inch.

The money we had saved for the final wedding payment had been transferred out by Vanessa the month before.

She had said a company project needed cash flow and promised to return it by the end of the month.

I immediately messaged Vanessa and asked her to transfer the money back first.

She replied quickly.

"The company's accounts are locked up right now. We'll talk tomorrow. Use my supplementary card first. The limit is enough."

But when I took her card to the payment window, the clerk told me, "Sir, I'm sorry. This card's limit was used up last night."

I froze.

"How is that possible?"

The clerk handed me the transaction record.

The charge was from the five-star hot spring hotel where Caleb was staying.

The time was late last night.

I stood at the payment counter, my palms slick with cold sweat.

My father had died years ago. My mother had treated me as her whole world.

And now, I could not even gather the money to save her life.

Just as I was about to lay down every shred of pride and borrow from relatives, my phone vibrated.

It was a friend request from Caleb Pierce.

The note contained only one sentence.

"Mr. Tully, let's talk. I don't want you to misunderstand Vanessa."

I accepted Caleb's friend request.

The first thing he sent was not an explanation, but an apology.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Tully. I didn't know your mother was that sick.

"If I had known, I never would have let Vanessa drive me."

Every word was like a soft knife wrapped in cotton.

It sounded gentle, yet it nailed Vanessa's choice before my eyes in blood.

Then he sent a photo.

In it, Vanessa stood at the doorway of a hotel room, lowering her head as she handed medicine to Caleb, who was leaning against the frame.

Her brows were lowered, and her profile looked endlessly patient under the warm light.

So patient it hurt to look at.

Caleb wrote, "She's just too kind. Don't blame her. It's all my fault."

I stared at the photo and suddenly thought of the empty chair beside my mother's hospital bed.

No tears fell.

I only felt a coldness in my stomach, wave after wave, until I nearly threw up.

I took a photo of the payment slip and sent it straight to Vanessa.

"My mother urgently needs treatment money."

She took a long time to reply.

There was a faint impatience in her tone, as if my repeated urgency had annoyed her.

"I've asked my assistant to handle it. Stop imagining everything in the worst possible way."

But when her assistant called, her tone was full of difficulty.

"Mr. Tully, Ms. Tomlinson said... the company accounts really are tight. We can only transfer a portion to you first for emergencies."

I did not even get the bank notification for that "portion" before Caleb posted another update.

This time, he showed off a Cartier LOVE bracelet.

The caption read: "Someone said that when you're scared, you should hold on to something bright."

In the background of the photo, a set of car keys had been tossed casually on the table.

They were the keys to Vanessa's Mercedes.

In the end, I borrowed money from my cousin, Aaron, whom I had not contacted in years.

Aaron drove overnight from the next city. When he saw how pale and exhausted I looked, he asked me directly, "Evan Tully, are you really going to marry someone like this?"

My first instinct was to defend her.

Then I realized I could not come up with even one decent reason.

That night, Vanessa finally arrived at the county hospital.

She did not go upstairs to see my mother first.

Instead, she called me from downstairs, sounding tired.

"Come down. I don't want to be surrounded by your relatives and interrogated."

When I went down, she handed me a bank card.

"The PIN is your birthday. Stop making a scene. I'll explain things with Caleb."

Before I could say anything, my phone automatically pushed Caleb's latest post onto the screen.

He had posted a photo of himself sitting in the ER infusion room.

A needle was taped to the back of his hand, and he looked fragile and pitiful.

The caption read: "Why do some people blame everything on me the moment they get angry?"

I looked at that post and suddenly understood why Vanessa refused to go upstairs.

She was not afraid of my relatives questioning her.

She was afraid I would force her to admit, in front of my mother, exactly where she had been and what she had done.

But I still brought her upstairs.

Because after my mother woke up, the first thing she asked was still, in a trembling voice, "Has Vanessa come?"

In the hospital room, Vanessa behaved perfectly.

She tucked in my mother's blanket, promised to contact the best specialists in Graybridge immediately, and said the wedding would proceed as planned so my mother could focus on recovering.

A small light finally appeared in my mother's cloudy eyes.

Her trembling hand placed my hand into Vanessa's.

"Evan has been sensible since he was little. He never says anything even when he's hurt.

"Vanessa, you must love him well from now on."

My eyes burned instantly.

In front of my mother, Vanessa tightened her grip on my hand and nodded solemnly.

But the moment we left the room, she let go.

Frowning, she asked in an icy voice, "Satisfied now?

"You had to make me act out that whole scene for your mother before you felt better?"

Those words landed like a hard slap.

They shattered the fragile warmth I had just felt in that hospital room.

At that moment, Caleb called.

As soon as Vanessa answered, his breathless sobbing came through the line.

"Vanessa... I think I'm allergic to the fever medicine... I feel awful all over... I'm alone..."

Vanessa's face changed instantly.

She turned to leave.

I held onto her arm with all my strength, my voice shaking.

"My mother may not make it through tonight. The doctor just talked to me."

Vanessa yanked her arm away.

She used so much force that I stumbled and hit the wall.

"Didn't the doctor say she was stable for now?

"Evan Tully, Caleb is the one in real trouble!"

I chased her to the hospital entrance. At some point, heavy rain had begun pouring outside.

Before Vanessa got into the car, she looked back at me.

Rain soaked her hair, and her eyes were full of disappointment and exhaustion.

"Evan, don't keep using your mother to force me to choose. It is exhausting."

Her taillights soon vanished into the rain.

My phone rang.

It was my mother's attending doctor, his voice urgent.

"Evan Tully! Hurry! Come back to the room! Your mother..."

My mother died at 1:03 a.m.

Until the end, she kept looking toward the door, as if still waiting for the daughter-in-law who had promised to come home with me.

I held her hand as it slowly turned cold and whispered over and over by her ear, "I'm here. I'm right here."

But she could no longer hear me.

Near dawn, Vanessa finally sent me a message.

"Caleb is stable. I stayed with him all night. How is your mother?"

I looked at that line for a long, long time.

Then calmly took off the engagement ring on my hand and placed it in the drawer beside my mother's bed.

The next second, a nurse came in and handed me an old envelope my mother had left behind.

"Your mother gave this to me while she was still lucid. She said to let you read it only when you were alone."