Raging flames tore through half the sky. Some people were shouting in shock, others gasping desperately for air.
These were the final fragments of memory after the violent collision.
Lydia's eyelids fluttered again and again, yet it felt as though her entire body was restrained, unable to move no matter how hard she tried.
She faintly heard voices speaking, unfamiliar ones, laced with foreign accents.
"She's suffered extreme psychological shock. Instinctively, she doesn't want to wake up, but physically, she's mostly out of danger."
"You mean she could wake up at any time? That's wonderful."
"No, no. What I mean is, she may also never wake up."
Those words yanked Lydia's drifting consciousness back in an instant. Her heart clenched, her fingers twitched slightly, and she snapped her eyes open.
White filled her vision. Slowly, it sharpened into focus. A high ceiling, walls so starkly white they sent a chill through her.
Standing before her was a doctor with a high-bridged nose and deep-set features. His striking blue eyes carried an inexplicable calm.
Meeting her gaze, he shrugged lightly and smiled toward the young man standing beside him.
"Oh, I lost. She woke up this quickly. Looks like the shock wasn't quite enough."
Lydia struggled to sit up, but her body had no strength. She quickly fell back onto the bed.
The young man reached out at once to steady her, his voice gentle and calm. "Careful."
Lydia blinked, utterly confused by the situation before her. Memories began surfacing bit by bit, and she parted her lips involuntarily.
The sound that came out was hoarse, completely unlike her former voice.
"I… wasn't I dead?"
The doctor's smile deepened as he suddenly leaned closer. "Yes, ma'am. But I pulled you back from Death himself."
He picked up a stack of documents from the bedside, his expression turning serious. "Any interest in signing my hospital on as the Sterling family's permanent private medical facility?"
The young man quickly stepped in to stop him. "Stop messing around, Henry."
......
It took Lydia some time to piece together everything that had happened.
The young man's name was Julian Sterling.
At the moment the horrific crash occurred, Julian's car had been right behind hers.
He and several others quickly got out to help, but the fire was too intense. They barely managed to drag Lydia out of the car and move her to safety.
The violent impact left Lydia unconscious. She had suffered severe head trauma, along with burns to her shoulder, elbow, and other areas.
In fact, she had been undergoing emergency treatment at this private hospital overseas for a full three months.
Lydia listened to all of this in a daze.
After a long while, she looked up at Julian in confusion.
"You saved me… then why didn't you take me to a nearby hospital? Why bring me overseas? M-my husband… where is he?"
Thinking of Damien, her throat tightened. She suddenly grabbed Julian's arm.
"He doesn't know I'm here, does he? Otherwise, he would have come looking for me."
But after hearing that, Julian's expression darkened visibly.
He lowered his shoulders slightly and turned on the television.
Over the past few months, he had recorded every piece of news related to Lydia. Now, he played them for her one by one, in chronological order.
When the obituary for Lydia was released, she was visibly stunned.
"He… he thinks I'm dead?"
Soon, she grew increasingly silent.
She watched the funeral end in haste. Damien held a black umbrella, leaving shoulder to shoulder with Ava.
She watched Damien mention her in front of reporters, his expression heavy with grief, though the wedding ring was long gone from his finger.
Lydia trembled as tears fell onto the blanket. She rubbed the wedding ring still on her finger.
Julian hesitated before speaking.
"Actually, more than half a year ago, I started tracking your life. I knew very clearly what you were going through, and what had been happening."
He pulled out a stack of photos and placed them in front of Lydia.
In those photos, there were shots of Damien holding Ava, and others of him bending down to wipe sweat from a little boy's forehead…
As Lydia looked at them, an uncontrollable chill spread through her body, leaving her shaking.
"This is… this is Ava's child."
Julian corrected her calmly. "No. In fact, this is Damien and Ava's child. He was born one year after your marriage. He's two years old now."
The truth drained all color from Lydia's face.
One year after the marriage.
While she had been full of hope, baking small treats for their newlywed life and ironing Damien's suits, he had already been with Ava.
Those photos laid bare every hollow moment and hidden underside of the past three years.
During the moments she waited for Damien, he had been staying close and intimate with Ava.
Her teeth chattered uncontrollably.
She remembered waking up groggily late at night for water, seeing Damien come upstairs in his pajamas.
He had answered so casually, "Couldn't sleep. Just walking around."
In reality, Ava had already been staying in a room downstairs at the time.
Lydia's tears wouldn't stop falling. She wiped them away, only for more to spill over again.
For the first time, Lydia felt grateful that she was still alive. Otherwise, she would have died without ever knowing the truth.
Yet confusion slowly spread through her heart.
She looked straight at Julian. "Why were you tracking me?"
Julian pulled out a chair and sat down. His gaze and tone had never been more focused.
"Do you know Richard Sterling?"
Lydia grew even more confused, but answered honestly. "Yes. The world's richest man. An elderly tycoon. What does that have to do with me?"
Julian said quietly, "It has everything to do with you. He's the one who's been looking for you. For more than twenty years."
"Looking for me?"
Julian nodded.
"Lydia, your mother was Richard's only daughter. He has no other children. Which means you are now his only granddaughter."
Lydia stared at him in shock. How was that possible?
She remembered countless times when her father, drunk, had pointed at her and cursed, saying her mother was nothing but a poor, short-lived woman who sold drinks.
How could that possibly be connected to the world's richest man?
But the look Julian gave her was utterly serious.
"I followed you for half a year. All the investigation files and biological verification results prove it."
He reached out and took her ice-cold hand in his.
"He's been waiting for you all this time."
