My Best Friend’s Heartless Daughter Swap

After giving birth early, memories from a different life flooded into my mind.

In these memories, the daughter I had worked so hard to bring into the world was switched with hers. After that, I was told that my daughter had a congenital heart condition.

I worked hard to raise her for eighteen years. In the end, I sold off all my assets so that she could have a heart transplant. Meanwhile, I had collapsed from all my efforts to care for her.

Left with no choice, I wanted to tell my “daughter” that I was leaving this world, but I overheard her talking with my best friend.

“That fool still thinks I’m her daughter. I was the one who poisoned her! Mom, once she dies and you get rid of that pretender, we can finally be together again!”

That was when I found out my daughter had been swapped out, and that I had been giving my all to the perpetrator.

When I next opened my eyes, pain radiated from my belly, and a nurse said, “Miss Scott, we’ve just learned that your daughter has a congenital heart condition.”

I had secretly sent someone off to help me carry out a maternity test.

The results proved conclusively that Agnes Beckett was not my daughter.

While acting unmoved, I had someone search for my actual daughter. At the same time, I stopped paying the fees for Agnes’ incubator.

My husband, Hadrian Beckett, arrived before my best friend, Liza Blair.

He held Agnes in his arms as he rushed into my ward. She was having difficulty breathing, and her face was turning blue.

“Are you insane, Rowena? You know that Aggie has heart problems, but you stopped paying her medical fees? Are you trying to kill her?”

I was just about to show him the maternity report and tell him that our baby had been switched. But when I glanced up and took a good look at his face, I was stunned.

Why had I never once suspected that Aggie was not my child in the previous timeline?

It was because she had looked so much like Hadrian.

Everyone said that daughters took after their fathers, and I had thought the same.

Yet, when I looked at the man I had been through so much with, I only felt a cold sensation starting up from my extremities.

I lowered my voice, and it shook as I said, “I talked to the doctor. Her chances of getting better from this condition are tiny. Even if we spend a fortune to treat her, she will always be weak and reliant on medical intervention. Her life will be painful. It would be better to… end things while she’s still young and innocent. She’ll suffer less that way.”

When Hadrian understood what I meant, he immediately yelled shrilly, “How could you be so heartless, Rowena? This is our daughter! The doctor already said that she has a chance as long as we’re willing to pay for it! Besides…”

Hadrian paused before resuming, “Didn’t your father leave you a lot of money? You’re saving your own daughter here. Don’t tell me you can’t bear to spend this money?”

My gaze sharpened. Ah, so this was the reason they had switched the babies.

Hadrian wanted me to spend my money to treat the daughter he had with his lover. He even expected me to expend all my time and effort to care for her.

In the previous timeline, I had been thoroughly fooled. Ignorant of the truth, that was exactly what I had done.

In the end, I had sacrificed all my money, my health, and even my life in exchange for their happy family.

I gave him a rueful smile. “Well, you’re right about that. If you want to treat her condition so badly, then you should spend your money to do it.”

I could not be bothered to look at him any longer. I turned around, intent on lying back in bed.

Just then, Agnes started crying. It was such perfect timing.

Hadrian seemed to find a great way to guilt me. Loudly, he announced, “Listen, the baby’s crying! She’s looking for her mother! You’re her mother, Rowena. How could you abandon her just because she’s a little sick? Are you so heartless?”

The ward door opened again. The nurse stopped at the door in the middle of doing her rounds, her unsure, judging, gaze stopping on me.