Liam Foster's childhood sweetheart, who had just returned to the country, hit me with her car.
Liam, who just said he was busy with surgery and didn't have time to spend our anniversary with me, but arrived at the scene in a few minutes.
Childhood sweetheart breathed a sigh of relief: "My boyfriend is here. He has money. If you want any compensation, just tell his assistant."
Liam gathered his jacket around her.
He frowned again and looked at my bleeding knee, staring at it for a long time.
She hesitated, "Do you two know each other?"
Liam lowered his eyes, took her hand and left.
"I don't know her."
She didn't say anything and looked at me deeply.
The next day I received a call that my daughter Luna was bullied by Noah Cole, a rich second-generation boy at school, and was pushed down the stairs, seriously injured and near death. However, it was determined that she committed suicide because of playing. My mother was so anxious that she had a heart attack and was admitted to the hospital.
I sued five times and lost all five times.
Just as I was preparing for my sixth appeal, I discovered that Luna was missing from the intensive care unit. The medical record clearly stated, "The patient has died and her body has been voluntarily donated to the hospital for medical research."
The experiment is scheduled for seven days later.
I held the light piece of paper tightly, my fingertips almost digging into my palm.
My Luna was clearly recovering and would be cured soon, so how could she die suddenly?
Just as I was about to contact the doctor, my husband Liam suddenly rushed in. His white coat still had a faint smell of disinfectant. He slapped a bank card in front of me:
"Clara Bennett, I've been at the hospital for eight years. From diagnosis to body disposal, there's nothing I can't handle. Even if you find more witnesses, I've already taken care of the autopsy report, and Lila's case won't be overturned."
"I said she committed suicide, and that's all she could do. Now that she's dead, she can't cooperate with you in identifying the murderer. You keep appealing, aren't you just trying to extort money from Vanessa's family?"
He leaned against the hallway cabinet, his tone filled with impatience. "I've already donated Lila's body to the hospital. The pathology department happened to be short of lab samples, and Vanessa's son is still waiting for Lila's kidney for treatment, so it wasn't a waste. There's ten thousand in this card, take it, and don't bother her endlessly."
Vanessa Cole, the woman who hit me with her car that day, the mother of Noah Cole, the rich second-generation who bullied Luna to death, and also Liam's childhood sweetheart.
I stared at the calm, unwavering look in his eyes, and then I realized belatedly—he had always believed that the person who had been bullied to death at school was my daughter, Lila, whom I adopted three years earlier. He even thought that my repeated appeals were just attempts to extort money from Vanessa's family.
I pushed the bank card back, my knuckles turning white from the force, my voice trembling but still strong, "You should keep this money for yourself."
Liam thought I thought it was too little, and his eyebrows suddenly raised. "Ten thousand is not enough? Clara, you have to understand, Lila is an orphan that no one wants. Being able to make some money by 'donating' to the hospital as a laboratory specimen is already the most useful thing she has done in her life. Don't push your luck!"
I shook my head, my eyes falling on the corner of paper flower sticking out of his white coat pocket - that was the little sunflower that Luna had just learned to fold last week and made specially for her most admired doctor father. He actually still stuffed it in his pocket and even blamed the wrong person for his daughter's death.
"Liam, I urge you to redeem Luna's body." I deliberately emphasized the word "Luna." "Otherwise you will regret it."
Liam frowned, his face full of disgust: "Are you confused? What Luna? Wasn't it Lila who died?"
"I've already made arrangements with the hospital's pathology department. I handled the donation paperwork myself, and my signatures were recorded in the system according to the procedure. You can't redeem it even if you want to." He pulled out his phone, pulled out a photo, and shoved it in front of me. "Look, Vanessa's son's kidney donor match just came out. Although we still have to wait for the follow-up appointment, at least there's hope. This is a good deed. Lila's life wasn't in vain."
Luna isn't an orphan. She's Liam and I's biological daughter. She's the one who stood on tiptoe to squeeze toothpaste for us in the morning, read to us from picture books before bed, and secretly slipped cookies from kindergarten to her dad. But when she was pushed from the third floor, the bully said, "My dad's a doctor, and he's rich. If you dare to sue me, I'll put your whole family in jail."
When my baby Luna was judged to have committed suicide, her father was busy greeting the forensic department and tampering with the conclusion of the cause of death; when her body was secretly sent away, her father only thought that she "could be used as an experimental sample and was not wasted."
"Liam, don't you think it's cruel?" I said hoarsely, "That's a child, not a tool for you to use to please Vanessa or to collect experimental materials for the hospital."
Liam curled his lips, his tone full of disdain: "Your adopted child is not my biological daughter, why should I be cruel?"
"Besides, the dead can't be resurrected. Helping Vanessa and contributing to the department means Lila is of some use." He put away the bank card and added, "By the way, Lila's health is obviously weak. She almost died from the flu last year. Even if she didn't die from the fall, she won't live long. Don't keep dwelling on this."
"Tomorrow you go to the hospital and apologize to Vanessa. Tell her that you shouldn't have been unreasonable and delayed her son's treatment, and then let this matter go." Liam said this and turned to walk towards the bedroom without even taking off his white coat. It was obvious that he had just returned from the hospital and was confronting me.
I stood in the living room, still clutching the "voluntary donation" registration form in my hand. The signature on it was forged - my name was signed crookedly, but it was stamped with the official seal of the hospital's pathology department. It was obvious that Liam took advantage of his position to bypass the normal procedures.
The doctor who once said he would "heal the dying and respect life" is now willing to trample on his own daughter's life for his childhood sweetheart. This marriage was dead the day Luna was pushed down the stairs.
