To save his illegitimate son, who suffered from kidney failure, Lucas Cadell had his five-year-old daughter go through the kidney removal surgery without telling his wife.

Upon finding out what happened, Cassiopeia Hepburn sped to the hospital. By the time she got there, the red indicator light above the operating room was already switched on.

Her eyes were bloodshot as she desperately pounded the door and cried out, "Stop! I'm the mother! I do not consent to having her kidney removed!"

Lucas stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her to restrict her. His voice was filled with remorse as he spoke, "I'm sorry, Cassie, but Liam is going to die from kidney failure if I don’t do anything to save him. The only solution is to have Anya donate her kidney to him."

Cassiopeia stared at the man she had loved for many years in disbelief. The man she was once so obsessed with seemed to have turned into a stranger.

The only thing Lucas Cadell was concerned about was the well-being of his illegitimate child. It never occurred to him that Anya had been born premature and plagued with sickness while growing up.

How was a child like that supposed to survive with a kidney surgically removed?

To Cassiopeia, the glare of the red light in the operating room seemed like a sword tipped over her head.

Her voice trembled when she spoke, "Lucas, you only thought about that illegitimate child of yours. Have you forgotten that Anya is your own flesh and blood, too? Please call off the surgery, please!"

Toward the end of her pleas, large beads of her tears slid down her cheek.

Lucas was distraught and softly pecked the corner of her eyes to draw the tears away. Nevertheless, it did not seem like he was going to relent.

"Don't worry, Cassie. It’s just a kidney. I’m sure Anya will be fine."

Cassiopeia had completely lost faith in him. She struggled desperately and even bit down on Lucas to stop him.

Even when she could taste blood in her mouth, Lucas still would not relent. He locked her in place and did not budge.

After what seemed like ages, the red light in the operating room was switched off.

The doctor stepped out with a box and hurried upstairs.

Lucas was thrilled. He immediately let go of Cassiopeia and marched after the doctor.

Cassiopeia staggered into the operating room. She stepped inside to find her daughter lying on the operating table with the color drained from her face. She felt a wave of emotion rush over her and drown her in an instant.

"Anya, I'm sorry. I was late, I am so sorry."

Anya weakly drew her eyes open and shifted her hands to caress Cassiopeia’s cheeks.

"Mommy… Daddy said he would take me to the amusement park… Why am I in a hospital? Did I do something to make Daddy angry at me?"

Cassiopeia felt like her heart would break into pieces when she heard Anya’s confused tone. Her words were lodged in her throat.

Her daughter had not done anything wrong. How was she supposed to tell her that it was only because Lucas, her own father, had chosen an illegitimate daughter over his biological daughter and forsaken her?

How was a five-year-old child to bear such a devastating truth?

The disappointment continued to swell in Anya’s eyes as she began to cry. "Daddy said he loved us and that he would never do anything to upset us! He said that!"

Cassiopeia couldn't hold back any longer and burst into tears.

There was a time when Lucas only loved her and Anya, but it was all in the past now.

Lucas had a reputation for being a devilish business mogul. Cassiopeia was his childhood sweetheart and used to be the only one whom Lucas would ever display tenderness toward.

He would willingly turn down business deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars just because she said she was feeling unwell. He would fly back home from abroad just so he could look after her from her bedside.

If she spotted some exquisite collection that caught her eye, all it took was two glances from her for him to exhaust every connection he had to identify the owner. Then, he would drop millions of dollars in a heartbeat to buy it for her.

When she got pregnant, Lucas spoiled her beyond what was thought possible.

People tend to say that wealthy couples were bound to go separate ways eventually because they would develop different values.

Cassiopeia firmly believed that she and Lucas would be an exception to this rule—that was until she was seven months pregnant when she found him sleeping with a female college student.

She was so upset that she nearly had a miscarriage. After being rushed to the hospital, she ended up giving birth to her daughter, Anya, prematurely.

The always prideful and proud Lucas knelt in front of her bed and slapped himself several times in the face to express how apologetic he was.

His face was beet red when he vowed, "Cassie, please believe me. Someone framed me. I'd have never even thought about betraying your trust."

When Cassiopeia looked at their newborn daughter, she caved in and forgave him.

After that, Lucas had given the student a significant sum to leave them alone. After that, he dedicated himself to becoming the best husband and father he could.

Around a month ago, Cassiopeia ran into Lucas with a woman. He was holding a boy that looked just like a splitting image of himself as a child!

The woman shielded the boy behind her and shot an adamant look at Cassiopeia.

"Mrs. Cadell, I promise that I will be Liam’s only parent. I will never try to take Cadell Corporation from you or your daughter."

An uncharacteristic tinge of panic flashed across Lucas’s face as he went up to embrace Cassiopeia and offer an explanation.

"Cassie, this is Freya Moore. I slept with her when I was drugged five years ago."

It was only then that Cassiopeia found out about what happened on that fateful night five years ago. Freya had gotten pregnant and decided to keep the child to raise by herself.

A little while ago, when she took the child with her to Cadell Corporation for an interview, Lucas ran into her.

Although he had long forgotten about her appearance, he immediately noticed how the boy she held in her arms looked just like him. Right away, he knew he was looking at his son.

After they got home, Lucas vowed to Cassiopeia again.

"Liam is my son. He has my blood flowing in his veins. Please give me some time to sort out arrangements for those two. I promise you that Anya will be my one and only successor regardless. That will never change."

Again, Cassiopeia compromised for the sake of their daughter who was deeply attached to her father.

Shortly after that, Liam was diagnosed with kidney failure.

Lucas had always felt guilty toward Freya and Liam over how things turned out. When he found out about what happened, he used every resource he had to find a suitable kidney donor.

As fate would have it, the only matching donor was his own daughter, Anya.

Cassiopeia foolishly assumed that Lucas adored Anya and would never do something as rash as making Anya donate her kidney.

Again, reality struck a heavy blow and exposed how naive she had been.

Not only did Lucas approve of the procedure, but he even kept the surgery a secret from her and ignored Cassiopeia's objections. He managed to trick Anya and get her onto the operating table.

When she saw the frail state Anya was in, she felt a deep pang of regret.

"Anya, why don’t I take you away somewhere else? We’re going to leave Daddy."

"Why are we leaving Daddy? Is he still angry with me?" Anya sounded like she was about to cry. "Mommy, I’ll apologize to Daddy. Just tell him not to be angry with me, please? I don't like hospitals…"

Anya’s voice grew fainter as she spoke. She felt her strength sapping away, and her arms fell to the ground as she gave away to exhaustion.

Cassiopeia could feel her heart beating like a drum. She held Anya’s hand frantically and chanted her name in fright.

"Anya, what's wrong? Open your eyes, please. You’re scaring me!"

Anya did not respond.

Panicked by this point, Cassiopeia called a doctor.

A nurse rushed into the ward. A single glance at Anya was all it took before she cried out urgently, "She's developed an infection after the surgery. She needs to be rushed to the emergency room!"

Cassiopeia cried out hysterically, "Hurry and find a doctor!"

The nurse became flustered. "Mr. Cadell had all the doctors booked. Nobody is available right now."

In terror, Cassiopeia reached for her phone with her hands shaking the entire time. "I’ll call him right now!"

She called him eighteen times and yet, there was no answer. Still, she refused to give up and called again.

On the nineteenth call, someone finally picked up.

"Lucas, Anya is…"

Beep…

The heart rate monitor issued a steady drone and displayed a horizontal line on the display.

Cassiopeia froze. She stared blankly at her lifeless daughter lying on the operating table. Meanwhile, she could hear Lucas’s ecstatic voice echoing on the phone.

"Cassie, they were operating on Liam just now. The surgery was a success. He’s going to be fine! Why were you calling me so many times? Was Anya looking for me? I’ll be right there."

Cassiopeia closed her eyes. Her voice came out in the form of a dry scratch. "Forget it."

Neither she nor Anya needed Lucas anymore.

The nurse cast a sympathetic look at Cassiopeia and proceeded to switch off the medical instrument before leaving to give the grieving mother some space.

The moment the door shut, Cassiopeia felt like all her strength had sapped away in an instant. She collapsed to the ground with a deathly still look in her eyes.

She remembered how tiny Anya had looked when she was born. She thought back to the time when Anya had first spoken and called her Mama, the time Anya had taken her first steps…

Countless episodes from the past flashed across her mind. At last, the sequences of images stopped at the still of Anya lying on a cold operating table with her face completely colorless.

Cassiopeia was filled with pain, but the tears would not fall.

After what seemed like ages, she slowly got up on her feet. She held Anya's cold and rigid body in her arms and rocked her gently the way she did when she needed to get her to fall asleep.

"Anya, Mommy will take you away from this place."

Every step she took required herculean effort as if her legs were filled with lead.

When she stepped out of the operating theatre, she bumped into Lucas, who was smiling from ear to ear.

"Cassie, Liam’s surgery was a success, and he's safe! I'm here to see Anya."

Safe?

Cassiopeia bit her lip tightly. She felt like she was having trouble breathing from the sheer force of her heartbreak. Anya had to pay for the well-being of his bastard son with her life!

"Anya doesn't need a father who doesn't love her."

Lucas's smile stiffened, and he seemed hurt by the derisive comment.

"Cassie, what do you mean I don’t love Anya? She's my daughter, my precious little princess! If I could, I would gladly endure all the pain coming her way for the rest of her life. All I want is for her to grow up carefree and happily."

He pledged sincerely the way a dutiful father would.

Cassiopeia reacted with a sardonic chuckle. She felt endless grief pour through her veins.

'What irony, Lucas. You were the one who inflicted pain on Anya!'

"Love? If you loved Anya, why would you force her to get her kidney surgically removed? Did you know…"

Even before she died, she assumed the reason he had her sent to the hospital was because she had done something wrong. Even in her last moments, she had pleaded for forgiveness.

Everything Cassiopeia wanted to say was lodged in her throat. She could not get a word out.

Lucas looked at her reddened eyes and felt a devastating throb in his heart. He panicked and explained, "I promise this is the last time this will happen. It’s only because Liam couldn’t find any other suitable kidney donor. Besides, they are siblings…"

He stammered over himself when he noted how Cassiopeia’s complexion was getting increasingly pale.

Then, he decided to change the subject. "Is Anya still under the effect of the anesthesia? Let me carry her to the ward. I’ll look after her until she wakes up."

Cassiopeia tightened her hold on Anya subconsciously. She felt as if sadness had turned into the intricate network of a spider’s web and bound her in place.

Wake up?

Lucas did not know that Anya would never wake up again.

Just as he was about to reach for Anya, one of his bodyguards rushed to him.

"Mr. Cadell, Liam has woken up and has been crying for you. He says he’s going to yank the IV tube out of his arm if he can’t see you! Even Ms. Moore couldn’t stop him!"

"This is ridiculous. He just had surgery!" Lucas cried out exasperatedly but seemed very concerned nonetheless.

He pulled his hand away and looked at Cassiopeia apologetically. "Cassie, can you stay with Anya first? I'll be right back after I calm Liam down."

"Lucas," Cassiopeia spoke in an eerily calm voice. "This is your last chance."

Once he walked away, he would never get another chance to see Anya.

Lucas naively thought she was forgiving him for his actions today, so he heaved a sigh of relief. "After Liam recovers and they go somewhere else, I promise I'll spend some time with you and Anya. Our family of three will return to the way it was before."

Cassiopeia held Anya rigidly in her arms and watched as Lucas strode away from her. A sardonic smile surfaced on her lips.

She knew that from today on, their family would never return to the way it had been.

......

She took Anya's body and went to the funeral home.

She watched as they had Anya cremated. What was once a child turned into countless specks of ashes.

She did not shed a single tear throughout the process, living like a walking corpse.

After that, she requested that the ashes be put in a tiny capsule so that she could string it on a chain and wear it like a necklace.

Instead of having Anya buried six feet under, she preferred to have the child with her at all times.

After leaving the funeral home, she went straight to the law office.

"I want to finalize the divorce agreement I drafted five years ago."

Five years ago, when Lucas had slept with Freya, he had the lawyers draft a divorce agreement and sign his name before presenting it to Cassiopeia.

At the time, he had declared firmly, "Cassie, if I ever betray you again, you have every right to sign this agreement and divorce me! You have every right to leave me for good!"

She thought the divorce agreement would never see the light of day.

Alas, reality had its strange twists and bends. Here she was, looking at it again.

With that, she solemnly took the pen and signed her name!

After that, she filed for a divorce.

Upon returning home, Cassiopeia’s first thought was to go to Anya’s room.

The room was tidy and looked the way it did when she had left home that morning. However, she knew the sound of Anya’s joyous laughter would never echo against these walls again.

She scanned every item in the room before finally settling her gaze on a toy placed at the head of the bed.

It was her birthday gift for Anya. The doll came with a built-in recorder.

When she played the tape inside, she heard a voice that sounded drearily familiar.

"Wow, you got a doll for me, Mommy! I’m going to sleep with this doll every night. I love you, Mommy!"

She felt like she was reliving the pain again. Every word struck her with the force of a sledgehammer. The tears she had been suppressing all this time burst out in an instant!

She hugged the doll tightly and curled up on the bed, desperate to feel the slightest trace of Anya’s warmth.

She regretted everything—handing Anya over to Lucas this morning, not getting divorced from him five years ago, and most of all, ever falling in love with Lucas.

She clutched the capsule strapped around her neck.

'Anya, wait just a little longer. Mommy will take you someplace better.'

Tears slid from the corners of her eyes and dropped into the depthless dark.

When she woke up the next morning and went downstairs, she spotted a new face in the living room.

Lucas was gently holding Freya's hand with an attentive look in his eyes while applying a healing cream to a fresh cut on her hand.

Freya's eyes were slightly rimmed red. However, she had her head turned to the other side and stubbornly refused to look at him.

"Mr. Cadell, don’t go thinking that I’m going to cede custody of Liam to you just because you have been taking care of me. I will be his only parent."

Despite her insolent tone, Lucas did not seem upset at all. He gently attended to her cut and carefully wrapped it with gauze before giving her a sincere expression.

"I won't take Liam away from you, but you cannot deny that he is our child. All I want to do is make up for the past five years you two had to live through without me."

Cassiopeia clenched her hands so tight that her fingernails dug into the flesh of her palms.

Make up for the past five years?

At the expense of Anya’s life?

Soon, Lucas noticed Cassiopeia from the corner of his eye. He quickly set the gauze aside and approached her to embrace her.

Then, he explained shiftily, "Cassie, Freya is just here to borrow our kitchen to make Liam some soup to drink while he recovers. She accidentally cut her hand just now, so I had to help her dress her wound. Don’t overthink. How is Anya, by the way? Is she awake?"

Cassiopeia’s eyes twitched.

"No."

Anya would never wake up again.

Lucas was taken aback.

How much anesthesia did they use on Anya in the surgery for her to still be asleep?

Just as he was about to say something, the sound of the notification on his phone cut off his stream of thoughts. He frowned as soon as he read the message.

"Cassie, there’s something I need to do for work. I’m heading out for a bit."

Then, he turned to Freya and advised her gently, "Be careful not to burn yourself when cooking. After the soup is done, I’ll come pick you up and take you to the hospital to see Liam."

Cassiopeia felt something brutishly wrapping around her heart when she noted the gentle timber in Lucas’s voice when he addressed Freya.

In the past, he would only show his gentle side to her and Anya, but now, he reserved it for Freya and her son.

After Lucas left, Cassiopeia and Freya were the only ones left in the living room.

Freya reverted to her usual mild expression.

"Mrs. Cadell, there’s nothing for you to worry about. Even though Mr. Cadell saved Liam, I don’t plan to give custody of my son away. I’m not going to let him become the illegitimate son of another man."

"It’s just the two of us here; you can drop the act now." Cassiopeia was very hostile and tore off her mask without a thought. "I know you don’t want your son to be an illegitimate child. If I had to guess, what you want is for him to become the true heir of the Cadell household."

Five years ago, Lucas not only gave Freya a significant amount of hush money, but he even had his men buy certain medicines for her to consume to abort the baby. However, she did not take the medicine as she was instructed and ended up giving birth to the child.

Five years later, she intentionally went to Cadell Corporation for an interview and manufactured a "coincidental" meeting with Lucas.

Cassiopeia was born rich. She was familiar with the likes of Freya and saw through her in an instant.

Freya seemed to do a double take. Then, she suddenly got up and expressed in a way that suggested she felt humiliated.

"Mrs. Cadell, please don’t look down on me just because you’re richer than me. The only reason I kept Liam was because I couldn’t bear aborting him! It was just a coincidence that Mr. Cadell recognized Liam!"

Cassiopeia glared at her icily before heading back upstairs without another word. She decided she no longer cared what Freya thought of her. Freya could claim the title of Mrs. Cadell if she wanted to.

She returned to Anya's bedroom and started packing right away.

Every item in the room was infused with Anya’s scent. She was going to take them with her.

When she spotted a picture album that Anya had placed on the table, she reached for it and flipped it open. It contained family pictures of the three of them together.

In one picture, Lucas was holding Anya with one hand and taking Cassiopeia’s hand with the other. They were posing with Mount Fuji in the background.

In another picture, Anya and Cassiopeia were chasing each other on the beach while Lucas spectated them with deep affection in his eyes…

In every picture, the trio were smiling from ear to ear. They exuded joy and love that seemed to spill through the pictures.

Unfortunately, the happy times were long behind them.

Cassiopeia took out the pictures and tore off Lucas's figure from each one of them before throwing them into the trash can. Anya and she were the only ones that remained.

Halfway through packing, she caught the whiff of a repulsive smell.

She frowned instinctively. When she went to open the door, the smell grew sharper.

When she had taken a few steps forward, she was hit with a heavy wave of nausea and almost lost her balance. She staggered a few steps before planting herself against the wall. Her head felt like mud.

Suddenly, a thought came to her. It was a gas leak!

She quickly wet a towel and used it to cover her mouth and nose before plucking the strength to head downstairs.

When she reached the living room, she found Freya who had fainted on the couch.

She felt like she was going to pass out again and no longer had the strength to keep her balance. Her legs folded underneath her and she collapsed. She tried to reach for the phone to call the emergency hotline, but her eyelids were getting heavier by the second.

Seconds before she was going to pass out, she heard the abrupt sound of the door opening. She bit down on her tongue to force herself awake, and then she put her hand out toward Lucas.

"Lucas, save... me."

"Freya!" Lucas rushed to Freya without hesitation and carried her in his arms. "Hold on, I'll take you to the hospital now!"

He ran off as frantically as he entered and did not seem to notice Cassiopeia who was begging for his help.

Cassiopeia lay by herself on the ice-cold floor and watched as the man, who vowed he would protect her for the rest of his life, waltzed off with another woman. Shortly after that, she was overcome by the gas and passed out.