I wanted to answer—but the world faded to black before I could speak.
"Weston, are you sure this won't endanger Denise's life?"
Inside the ambulance, Vivian looked at my pale, bloodless face and finally broke the silence.
"Relax, Mom," Weston replied calmly, his tone disturbingly cold. "I've handled her miscarriages before, haven't I? I know what I'm doing."
He said it like he was discussing a business transaction, not a life.
"Besides," he continued indifferently, "Patricia is also the daughter you raised for eighteen years. You can't be this biased. She's dying, yet all you worry about is Denise?"
Vivian frowned, glancing at me on the stretcher before lowering her voice.
"Biased? Do you even know why I brought Denise back in the first place?" she said, her tone tinged with panic. "It's because Patricia has a rare blood disease, and only Denise's blood type matches hers!"
"I worked so hard to find and bring her home," she went on, "not to make up for lost years—but to make her Patricia's walking blood bank!"
She grew more agitated as she spoke. "If something happens to Denise now, what will we do about Patricia?"
"Enough," Weston cut her off sharply. "Even if that's true, you shouldn't have forced me to marry her."
"That's because... because—" Vivian faltered, a flicker of something complicated flashing through her eyes. Whatever she wanted to say, she swallowed it back down.
In the end, she only left two cold warnings.
"I don't care what happens between you and Patricia. First, Denise must live. Second, she must never learn the truth."
Weston's lips curved into a faint, mocking smile. "And what if she does? What can she possibly do—leave me?"
Under An's mother's furious glare, Weston finally nodded, saying nothing more.
Neither of them noticed the slight tremor of my eyelashes on the stretcher, or the single tear that silently slid down my cheek.
Even when I once learned that Vivian had gifted Patricia a luxury villa and an unlimited black card, I merely smiled faintly. After all, she had raised Patricia for eighteen years—how could she not love her?
And since I returned to the Holmes family, Vivian had done everything to "improve" our relationship.
I had foolishly believed she wanted to make up for the motherly affection I'd missed. But it turned out she only wanted to keep her other daughter alive.