The Heart Thief's Despair

The day of my heart transplant, my mother locked me in the dark basement.

It was all because Chloe, the girl she treated as her own daughter, also needed a heart transplant.

To ensure Chloe got the heart that was a perfect match for me, my mother covered my chest with electrode pads to suppress my heartbeat.

I knelt on the ground, begging her, pleading with her to let me go.

But my mother was unmoved. She pressed hundreds of electrode pads deep into my skin, making the angina I already suffered from even more unbearable.

The last electrode pad was placed directly over my heart by my mother herself.

She looked at me, trembling all over, and said coldly,

"Chloe has been frail since childhood. She just wants a healthy heart. Do you have to fight her for even this?"

"Ever since you came back, you've always targeted Chloe. Let's see how you like this piercing pain!"

"The specialists said the electrode pads, combined with a dark environment, could strengthen your heart. You can have your surgery later, once they find a second donor heart."

I lay on the ground, close to fainting, waiting for my mother to come and get me out.

But my mother was overjoyed when Chloe's surgery was a success, taking her on a trip to Europe.

It wasn't until two months later, when my mother returned home and saw my empty room, that she remembered me. She then ordered someone to rush me to the hospital.

Housekeeper Mrs. Davies hesitated, her words caught in her throat.

"Lily... she's already dead in the basement."

The electric currents coursing through my body, combined with the excruciating pain of my angina, made me question if I was still alive.

Only my mother's cold eyes in front of me forced me to cling to a sliver of consciousness.

Before the basement door was shut, I desperately clung to my mother's pants leg.

"Mom! I really can't hold on. My heart hurts so much. If this goes on, I'll die..."

"Please, can you send me to the hospital? I promise I won't fight Chloe for the heart. I'll just take my medication..."

I cried and begged my mother, but she was indifferent. She turned to patiently comfort Chloe, who stood by, watching the show.

"Be a good girl, Chloe. Don't be nervous during the surgery. I will be with you the whole time."

"After you recover, I will take you to travel the world and give you everything I own, okay?"

Chloe shot me a defiant glance, then asked my mother, "If all your assets go to me, what about Lily?"

"Lily? Ha." My mother scoffed. "She's lived a life of poverty for so many years. She's used to not having money. My love will be enough for her."

As she turned to take Chloe to the operating room, she suddenly received a call from Martha, my grandmother.

"Ellie, Lily should be having her surgery soon, right? Please make sure you take good care of her these past few days. Lily has suffered so much. We can't afford any more mistakes this time."

My mother mumbled a quick dismissal and hung up the phone.

I closed my eyes, using the last bit of my strength to speak.

"Mom... I really wasn't lying. I'm in too much pain..."

"If Martha finds out, she'll definitely blame you..."

After the Vance family found me again, my mother had always been cold towards me, all to manage Chloe's emotions.

At my mother's instruction, everyone in the Vance household kept their distance from me. Only Martha was happy about my return.

Even this donor heart was found with Martha's help, but she had no idea that my mother had already forced me to give it to Chloe.

After hanging up the phone, my mother glanced at me again.

At this point, I was in so much pain I'd almost lost all feeling. My face was a mess of blood and tears.

My mother looked at me, momentarily stunned, even wondering if the specialists' words were credible.

Chloe suddenly squatted down. Out of my mother's sight, a faint smirk played on her lips. Then, she brutally pressed both hands onto my chest.

The electrode pads on my chest dug in even deeper. The tearing sensation in my chest made me scream in agony.

But Chloe suddenly fell backward, landing hard on her backside.

Immediately, she burst into tearful sobs.

"Lily, I just wanted to comfort you. You know my heart isn't strong, yet you pushed me. Do you really need me to die for you to be happy?"

My mother's eyes instantly filled with pity. She pulled Chloe into her embrace, comforting her softly.

Chloe cried, shaking her head.

"I know my sister doesn't like me. She blames me for taking her place for so many years, but I really have been kind to her."

"Maybe you should just send me away, Mom. That way, I won't be in my sister's way anymore."

My mother snorted. "If anyone's leaving, it'll be her."

After soothing Chloe, my mother turned and yelled at me.

"How can you be so malicious?!"

"You always pick on Chloe. She only wanted to show you some care, but you deliberately pushed her over."

"If anything happens to Chloe, I will never forgive you."

If my current appearance hadn't been so horrifying, my mother probably would have made me kneel in the yard for three days and three nights, just like before.

My mother knew I had been kidnapped and suffered in that remote area for ten years. I had always been cautious and never blamed her for not taking care of me back then.

But now she called me malicious?

Finally, my mother left with Chloe, not even sparing a glance for me, lying on the ground, dying.

The angina and the pain of the electrode pads digging into my chest felt like less than a thousandth of the pain in my heart.

I was my mother's biological daughter. Before I was taken, I was once her cherished little princess.

But when I returned ten years after being kidnapped, I found a strange girl in our house. She also called my mother "Mom."

The gentle mother I remembered seemed to have changed overnight.

She was still as meticulous in her care, as if she'd pluck the moon from the sky for her daughter, but the daughter in her heart wasn't me, it was Chloe.

Blood already blurred my vision. Suddenly, a wave of angina brought me back to full consciousness.

I hadn't even received my heart transplant yet. How could I just die like this?

In the basement, I woke up only to faint again, over and over, no longer able to distinguish day from night. After regaining some strength, I forced myself to crawl to the iron door and repeatedly pounded on it.

"Help me... Is anyone there?"

"It hurts so much... Please let me out..."

The rough iron door scraped my hands, but I couldn't feel the pain anymore.

It wasn't until I had no strength left to lift my hands that I finally heard footsteps outside the door.

I clutched at a straw of hope, calling out for help again.

"Help me..."

But upon hearing my plea, Mrs. Davies outside the door snorted disdainfully.

"Stop shouting! If you disturb Mrs. Vance and Miss Chloe, you'll be in for it!"

"A country bumpkin from nowhere, daring to fight Miss Chloe for a heart? So what if you're the true heir? In Mrs. Vance's heart, Miss Chloe is the only heir of the Vance family. You'll never take her place."

Because of my mother's differential treatment, even the nanny in the house could insult me freely.

I swallowed the humiliation, bit by bit, and spoke through gritted teeth.

"My heart hurts terribly. I'm starting to suffocate. If this continues, I'll die."

"Let me out quickly... If anything happens to me, Martha won't let you get away with it!"

Mrs. Davies, though opportunistic, understood that I still held some sway with Martha. If I died in the basement, Martha would surely seek justice for me.

After much deliberation, Mrs. Davies decided to call my mother.

"Mrs. Vance, Lily says her heart is giving out. She's in excruciating pain. Should we let her out?"

My mother sounded a bit confused.

"She was fine when we left. How could she be dying now?"

After a moment, my mother hesitated. "Why don't you open the door first and check on her..."

I thought I heard hope, but Chloe interrupted my mother, her voice filled with certainty.

"The method of using electrode pads to strengthen the heart was something I specifically consulted a foreign specialist about. There's no way it could go wrong. Mom, if you don't trust me, don't you trust a specialist?"

Hearing Chloe's voice, laced with a hint of petulance, my mother panicked a little and quickly reassured her that she believed her.

The call continued. When speaking to me, my mother's voice reverted to its usual coldness.

"Lily Vance, you'd better behave yourself!"

"She's just trying to trick you into letting her out so she can go to the hospital and fight Chloe for the donor heart. I've already told her I'll find her another heart. Can't she even wait that long?"

"Besides, I've already strengthened her heart according to what the specialist said. What else isn't she satisfied with? None of you need to pay attention to her. If she wants to fuss, let her fuss."

With that, my mother hung up on me without a second thought. Mrs. Davies also left, spitting contemptuously before she went.

My world became quiet again. I could only hear my own erratic heartbeat.

Everything was pitch black. My consciousness felt increasingly blurry.

Was I really going to die like this?

I didn't dare to close my eyes, afraid that if I did, I would never open them again.

But I didn't want to die.

Clinging to the last shred of my will, I actually managed to hold on until I heard sounds from the basement door again.

"Is anyone there... Is someone outside?"

"Help me... Please, please help me..."

The person outside seemed to hear my plea. They ripped off the rickety padlock on the basement door.

By the faint light, I recognized him. It was Mr. Clark, a manager from the Vance family company.

Mr. Clark was startled by the metallic scent of blood in the basement and stumbled back a few steps.

"Mr. Clark... it's me..."

I struggled to get up, but just as I reached the door, I collapsed heavily again.

Mr. Clark quickly helped me up, asking what had happened.

I had no strength left to speak, only endless tears streaming down my face.

Mr. Clark quickly pulled out his phone and called my mother.

"Mrs. Vance, Miss Lily seems to be injured. Please come back and check on her!"

My mother's voice on the other end instantly sounded flustered.

"What? Chloe just said she wanted cake and asked me to buy her some. How could something happen to her right after I left? Where is she now?"

Hearing my mother's anxious voice, Mr. Clark continued to explain.

"I'm not talking about Miss Chloe. I'm talking about your biological daughter, Miss Lily, who you recently found."

My mother on the other end paused. After confirming that Mr. Clark was only there to deliver some documents to the house and happened to hear my cries for help, she let out a scornful cold laugh.

"That brat is getting bolder and bolder, just making up lies on the spot."

"Mr. Clark, leave the documents and go. Lily Vance is perfectly safe in the basement. You don't need to worry about her."

Although my mother's indifferent tone left Mr. Clark a bit bewildered, he still called 911 for me before leaving.

I was in so much pain I nearly passed out. In a blur, I thought I saw someone lift me into an ambulance.

But when I woke up again, I didn't get the rescue I'd imagined. Instead, the pain in my chest intensified.

"Ah..."

I couldn't help but cry out in pain, only then noticing a nurse nearby.

"Please, save me... I'm in so much pain..."

"If this goes on, I'll really die..."

The nurse looked anxious but hesitated, her words caught in her throat.

"I'm so sorry, miss. All our cardiologists are currently assigned to a heart transplant surgery and can't be spared. Can you please wait a bit longer?"

My heart sank. I was in too much pain to speak, so I just gripped the nurse's hand tightly, tears streaming down my face as I begged her for help.

The nurse seemed a little sympathetic. After a moment of hesitation, she comforted me.

"Alright, how about this: I'll go ask the patient's family next to the operating room if they'd be willing to have a doctor attend to you, okay?"

I nodded frantically, hoping God would grant me a single mercy.

The patient's family the nurse mentioned seemed to be right next door. I could clearly hear their conversation.

"Mrs. Vance, we have another heart patient who just arrived at the hospital. She seems very ill. Would you mind if we assigned a doctor to treat her?"

"Another heart patient? This can't be delayed. Send two doctors over."

The nurse thanked her for me, and the person even asked a few questions about my condition.

This Mrs. Vance was truly kind-hearted.

She was willing to help a stranger.

But how could such a kind-hearted woman bear to let her own biological daughter suffer?!

I recognized Mrs. Vance's voice; it was my mother. And the person who made her mobilize all the doctors in the hospital to save them must have been Chloe.

My tears fell silently.

I shouldn't have wished for this kind of maternal love.

However, with my mother's instruction, I was quickly wheeled into the private room next to Chloe's.

I heard the doctor making the final pre-surgery confirmation with my mother.

"Mrs. Vance, this donor heart was originally Miss Lily Vance's. Are you sure you want to give it to Miss Chloe Vance?"

"Confirmed."

My mother replied, her voice firm and resolute.

I should have expected this outcome long ago.

Because there was no donor heart for me, the doctor could only give me anesthesia to temporarily stabilize my condition, but this would only cause my heart to rapidly deteriorate.

I endured the pain, reaching out to grab the doctor's sleeve.

"My body can't take any more anesthesia... Please, save me. I can't hold on..."

Facing my plea, the doctor only said helplessly,

"Miss, these are all Mrs. Vance's arrangements."

"Right now, all heart medications must first be given to Mrs. Vance's daughter. You'll just have to wait a little longer. Otherwise, if you offend Mrs. Vance, you might not even get the anesthesia."

Despite my sorrow, I knew the most important thing now was to stay alive.

I bit down hard on my tongue, the sharp pain instantly clearing my head.

"Mom!"

"Save me!"

Hearing my gut-wrenching screams, the doctor merely sighed softly.

"No one can help you now, miss. You just don't have a mother like Mrs. Vance."

"You really came to the hospital at the wrong time. It just so happens that Mrs. Vance's daughter is having surgery today, and Mrs. Vance arranged for all the doctors and medications to be moved to avoid any complications."

"But don't worry. Once Mrs. Vance's daughter's surgery is over, you can have your medication."

...

I didn't hear the rest of what the doctor said. I only knew he was recounting my mother's magnificent maternal love.

The ironic thing was, I, her biological daughter, didn't receive any of that love.

Meanwhile, in the other part of the room, Chloe's surgery had already begun.

My mother was afraid Chloe would be scared, so she kept encouraging her.

When rejection complications occurred during the surgery, my mother was so anxious she almost cried.

"Don't be scared, Chloe. I am right outside with you."

"Once your surgery is done, I will take you to travel the world and transfer all the company's assets into your name."

And just one wall away, on the other side, I lay on a cold hospital bed as the anesthesia took effect.

I couldn't speak, only shed helpless tears, feeling my life slowly ebb away.

"Heart transplant complete! The surgery was a great success!"

The moment the doctor announced Chloe's successful surgery, my life came to an end.

I felt my body lighten, and I floated into Chloe's operating room.

I saw my mother crying with joy, carefully embracing Chloe.

"My dear daughter, the surgery was a success. I am so happy."

Everyone around them marveled at my mother and Chloe's deep mother-daughter bond, yet no one knew.

In the dark corner, my mother's biological daughter had just taken her last breath.

After that, I saw my mother take Chloe on a trip to Europe.

They ate together, took photos, celebrating Chloe's new life.

And I could only whisper to myself,

[Mom, we'll never see each other again...]

It wasn't until two months later, when my mother returned home and saw my empty room, that she remembered me. She then ordered someone to rush me to the hospital.

Mrs. Davies hesitated, her words caught in her throat.

"Lily... she's already dead in the basement."