"Miss Harding, please, calm down. We're both mothers. I don't want to make things difficult for you."
She reached into her bag, pulled out a bank card, and set it on the bed.
"There's a million dollars on this card. More than enough to cover Jeanette's surgery."
"My only condition is that Julian never finds out she exists."
A million dollars. Enough for the surgery and the medication.
The refusal climbed to the tip of my tongue, but I forced it back down.
Between a life without a father and a life at all, I would always choose her life.
So I swallowed the bitterness burning in my throat.
"Fine. I agree."
A smug smile spread across Grace's face. She rose slowly to her feet.
She took two steps, then frowned and turned back to me with a helpless look.
"Miss Harding, would you mind tying my shoelace for me? I really can't bend down."
I hesitated, suspicion flickering through me. But in the end, I knelt down.
That was when Julian's voice cut through the room, sharp and urgent.
"Grace, what are you doing in here?"
Before I could react, Grace let out a cry and her body pitched backward.
Julian rushed in and caught her just before she hit the ground. His pupils contracted to pinpoints.
"Gertrude, you've gone too far!"
"I didn't—"
His hand cracked across my face before I could finish, the force so brutal it whipped my head to the side.
Grace sagged against Julian's chest, her face drained of color, her voice choked with tears.
"Julian, don't blame Miss Harding. She just wanted a million dollars for her child."
"I told her that's our joint marital assets, and I don't have the authority to give it away. That's why she got upset and pushed me."
"She didn't mean it..."
Julian stared at me, disbelief flooding his eyes.
"A child? When did you have a child?"
"I actually thought you were sincere. Turns out this whole time, I was nothing but an ATM to you."
I opened my mouth to explain, but Grace beat me to it.
"Julian, let it go."
"We wronged Miss Harding first, after all. We can't take away her right to find happiness."
Julian's face went dark as iron, his eyes filled with nothing but disgust.
"Gertrude, you're really something else."
He pulled out his phone.
"Security? There's someone here trying to hurt my wife."
Several guards burst into the room within minutes. They seized me by the arms and hauled me off to the police station.