Chapter 1

I collapsed to my knees, clinging desperately to the doctor’s hand despite how pathetic I looked.

“Please, you have to save her. It was only a fever. How could you not bring her back? Please, I’m begging you…”

“I’ll kneel and kowtow if you want. I’ll kowtow to you…”

I slammed my forehead against the floor again and again until it was red and swollen.

The doctor couldn’t bear to watch and hurriedly helped me up, his voice heavy with sorrow. “I’m sorry for your loss, Mr. Reed.”

“You can go inside and take one last look at the deceased.”

All the blood in my body seemed to freeze, and in an instant, I lost every bit of strength.

I moved mechanically into the operating room and lifted the white sheet with trembling hands, revealing Sophie’s bruised and purple face.

Her once fair, delicate face was covered in dried tear tracks, twisted with unbearable pain.

The doctor had closed her eyes, but my daughter had died unable to rest in peace.

I touched Sophie’s cold little hand and tightly clutched the prayer beads she had worn since birth in my palm, sobbing so hard I could no longer make a sound.

After a long while, I tremblingly used my phone to call Claire Bennett.

The phone rang for a long time before Claire finally answered. “Ethan Reed, do you know that Jason was pushed down the stairs by your precious daughter?”

Her voice was filled with anger and impatience. “I have to stay with Jason. I don’t have time for you.”

At the same time, the hotel front desk’s checkout announcement came through the receiver.

In that instant, a furious rage nearly burst through my chest.

So while I was rushing around the hospital in panic, kneeling and begging one doctor after another, while my daughter was being shocked again and again, and even while she had finally become a cold corpse…

Claire had been getting a hotel room with Jason Miller!

A powerful wave of nausea rose into my throat. I staggered into the bathroom, gripped the toilet, and vomited until the world blurred around me, my brain going numb.

Tears fell together with stomach acid. I wiped at my mouth carelessly, my face covered in tears.

The scalding tears struck the back of my hand one after another. I hugged my head tightly, laughing and crying at the same time.

It wasn’t until dawn that I returned home in a daze.

Claire was smiling as she peeled shrimp for Jason and brought one to his lips.

The moment she saw me, all the warmth vanished from Claire’s eyes. She rolled her eyes impatiently.

“Where have you been messing around? Where’s that little animal? Tell her to get over here and kneel before Jason to apologize in person.”

“Jason has a performance in a couple of days. If he can’t go onstage, I’ll cripple that brat’s other leg too! She’s been rotten since she was little. Who knows what kind of evil things she’ll dare to do when she grows up!”

“Don’t think locking her up for two days will make this go away! I’m going to discipline that brat properly today!”

That little animal…

A sense of absurdity and despair rose inside me.

So that was what she called her own daughter.

“She can’t come.” After going a full day without drinking even a drop of water, my voice was hoarse and unpleasant.

The moment I finished speaking, Claire flew into a rage and threw a bowl of hot soup at me. Oil splashed all over my face, leaving me utterly humiliated.

“Ethan Reed! That brat turned out this way because you spoiled her! And now you still have the nerve to protect her!”

“If that brat doesn’t come here and apologize to Jason today, don’t even think about getting her leg fixed! She can be crippled for the rest of her life!”

I clenched my teeth so tightly that my entire body trembled, as if I were seeing the woman in front of me for the first time.

Even a wild animal wouldn’t harm its own young.

Yet she had personally broken our daughter’s leg!

“Claire, let it go. Sophie probably didn’t mean to do it.” Jason grabbed her arm and smiled gently. “It’s only a sprained ankle. She’ll be fine in a few days. The child’s health matters more.”

He gave me a seemingly casual glance, but the smugness in his eyes was impossible to miss.

Sure enough, his words made Claire’s face turn livid.

“Bang!”

She slammed her palm on the table so hard that the entire room seemed to shake. She looked at me as if her eyes were poisoned blades.

“Where the hell did you hide that brat? Tell her to get over here right now!”

“She’s dead.” I stared at her and forced the words out one by one. “She died at the hands of her own mother.”

“You’re still pretending!” Enraged and humiliated, she stormed over to me and raised her hand high.

I grabbed her by the collar and finally lost control. Tears and snot streamed down my face as I roared, “Sophie is dead! She’s dead!”