Chapter 5

A nurse came over with the payment slip and urged me.

“Have your family members arrived? Hurry and pay the money because the doctor is waiting to arrange the surgery.”

I gritted my teeth and climbed out of the hospital bed.

There was an ATM in the corner of the hospital lobby.

I clutched my stomach and moved over step by step, and every step felt like stepping on the edge of a knife.

I inserted the bank card that received twenty thousand dollars every month into the machine.

I entered Chloe’s birthday.

A line of cold red text appeared on the screen:

“Incorrect PIN. You have two attempts remaining.”

My mind buzzed, and it felt as if someone had struck me head-on with a club.

Wrong?

My mom had clearly said the PIN was Chloe’s birthday.

My whole body went cold, and even my teeth were chattering.

I tried their wedding anniversary next.

“Incorrect PIN. You have one attempt remaining.”

I stared at the screen, my breathing rushed.

The final attempt.

With shaking hands, I entered my own birthday.

“Incorrect PIN. Your bank card has been locked.”

The machine let out a beeping alarm, and the card was swallowed directly.

At that moment, I seemed to hear the sound of my own heart shattering.

So from beginning to end, they had been lying to me.

They had never planned to let me use a single cent inside.

I leaned against the ATM and slowly slid down to sit on the floor.

The pain in my stomach came in wave after wave, and I did not even have the strength to cry anymore.

Just as I thought I was truly going to die in that cold corner, the phone in my pocket suddenly vibrated.

I struggled to take out my phone.

It was a bank deposit text.

“Your account ending in 7319 received a deposit of USD 3,200,000.00 at 02:14.”

I stared at that long string of zeros, and my vision went dark.

Right after that, my professor called, his voice filled with wild joy.

“Emma! The patent transfer paperwork for our project went through! The other company paid the full amount directly! Three million two hundred thousand! Did you receive it?”