Chapter 2

Pearl stood frozen in shock.

Julian's polite mask slipped, his face darkening.

"Mrs. Foster, this pendant is an heirloom passed down through generations of Sterlings. Don't you think your words are completely out of line?"

"An heirloom?"

I reached out and shoved the velvet box back into his chest.

"Why don't you go home and ask your dear grandmother whether this is an heirloom, or stolen loot she snatched off an unconscious nurse thirty-two years ago?"

Julian's eyes turned icy.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like."

I stood up.

"Butler, see our guest out."

Pearl instinctively stepped forward, her eyes reddening with panic.

"Mom, what is going on? Please tell me!"

Looking at her, my heart ached.

Her father and I had shielded her from the cruelty of the world for too long. She had no idea that some people built their dazzling reputations atop other people's flesh and blood.

"Pearl," I said softly.

"You can fall in love, but you cannot be blind."

"Look at this man. Look at who he really is."

When Julian walked out the front door, his face was storm-black.

Pearl ran after him, but he brutally wrenched his arm from her grip.

"Your mother just humiliated me! Did you expect me to stay and beg for her approval?"

"Julian, my mom isn't like that! There has to be a reason—"

Julian scoffed bitterly.

"A reason? She thinks because the Sterlings haven't grown as fast as the Fosters lately, I'm not good enough for the precious Foster heiress!"

"Pearl, I thought you were different from the rest of these arrogant socialites. Clearly, I gave you too much credit."

Pearl stood on the porch steps, her lips trembling.

I watched through the French doors.

She stood alone in the chill for a long time before finally walking back inside with her head hung low.

She didn't cry, but her eyes were swollen and red.

"Mom."

She stopped in front of me.

"Can you tell me? What happened between the Sterlings and Grandma?"

I stayed silent for a beat.

"Your grandmother's name was Evelyn Moore."

Pearl nodded.

"I know. You visit her grave every single year."

"When she was young, she was an emergency nurse at a small county hospital."

I pulled an old, worn photo album from the bookshelf and flipped open the first page.

The woman in the picture was young, wearing a faded nurse's uniform. She had a delicate face, but her eyes sparkled with quiet determination.

Pearl leaned in closer.

"Grandma was beautiful."

My fingers traced the worn edge of the photograph.

"She wasn't just beautiful. She was brave."

Thirty-two years ago, this city wasn't nearly as developed as it is today.

The Sterling family convoy was driving back from the capital when a sudden mudslide hit the mountain pass.

Cell service was dead back then. The road was washed out, blocking rescue teams from getting through.

My mother arrived on the scene with the county hospital's first-response ambulance.

Inside a crushed car, a fifteen-year-old boy was trapped. A twisted sheet of metal had sliced into his abdomen, and he was bleeding out fast.

The surgeon said he needed an immediate, massive transfusion to survive the extraction.

But the boy had a critically rare Rh-negative blood type. The mobile kit had no matching units, and none of the staff or passengers matched.

My mother raised her hand immediately.

"Take mine. I'm Rh-negative."

The doctors hesitated.

She had just injured her right shoulder pulling that very boy from the wreckage, and her whole body was shaking from shock and pain.

Yet she simply said:

"A life is on the line. Pump it."

That night, they took eight hundred milliliters of blood from her.

By the time the bags were swapped, her face was as white as a sheet of paper.

Old Mrs. Sterling clung to her hand, weeping, calling her the savior of their entire bloodline.

She unclasped that fish-shaped jade pendant and fastened it around my mother's neck.

My mother tried to refuse.

The matriarch insisted: "Child, you saved the only heir to the Sterling name. If you don't take this, my conscience will haunt me for the rest of my life."

Shortly after, my mother lost consciousness from severe blood loss and shock.

When she woke up in the county ward three days later, her bedside was completely empty.

The jade was gone. The written commendation was gone. The Sterlings were gone.

And her closest coworker from back home, Brenda Yates, was boarding a luxury car headed for the capital, wearing a brand-new dress.

Brenda Yates became the Sterlings' savior.