A Father's Descent into Madness

When the hospital called to demand my daughter's overdue medical fees again, my ex-husband finally stepped in and cleared our entire balance.

He looked at our daughter, whose lips were tinged a sickly blue with her heart condition, his eyes swimming with guilt. Let's get remarried. The child is innocent.

I didn't hesitate. I merely nodded with absolute apathy.

After we remarried, I stopped picking fights with his high school sweetheart.

Our daughter, Lily, also stopped desperately trying to steal her father's attention away from his sweetheart's daughter.

When his grand drone-and-fireworks show for his sweetheart's birthday made local headlines, my daughter and I didn't shed a single tear or make a scene.

Even when we ran into them at the hospital, Lily and I merely kept our heads down and walked past them briskly.

We became exactly what he had always wanted: quiet, generous, and perfectly behaved.

Yet, his eyes welled with tears as he asked, "Honey, why don't you check my phone anymore?"

"Lily, why don't you want Daddy to stay with you anymore?"

After finalizing the remarriage paperwork, I walked back to my department. Cyrus followed close behind me as we reached the door of the private pediatric suite reserved for Lily.

The door was slightly ajar, and the sound of soft laughter drifted out.

I pushed it open. Evelyn was sitting right by the bedside, peeling an apple for Penny.

"Gillian?" Evelyn jumped up, looking flustered and helpless. "Please don't misunderstand. Penny was having such bad chest pains earlier, and Cyrus said it was fine to use this room temporarily. We'll move out to the corridor right now. We absolutely won't take Lily's spot."

Her eyes welled with tears instantly as she clutched the hem of her cardigan, though her feet didn't move an inch.

I offered a polite nod, remaining entirely silent.

"Daddy!" Penny cheered from the bed, tossing the blanket aside to throw herself into Cyrus's arms.

Evelyn quickly held her back, looking terrified of angering me. "Penny, how many times has Mommy told you? That's Uncle Cyrus."

Cyrus looked at me, his expression deeply awkward. Seeing that neither Lily nor I had any reaction, a flash of surprise crossed his eyes.

The bedside table was piled high with Penny's toys.

Evelyn bit her lower lip. "Penny is afraid of bitter medicine, so I had to use these toys to coax her into taking it..."

The air in the room seemed to freeze.

I felt a gentle tug at the hem of my nurse's scrub top.

Lily's lips were a sickly shade of blue. She looked up at me, her voice barely a whisper. "Mommy, I can use the extra bed in the hallway. I don't hurt that much."

My heart clenched violently, a suffocating ache spreading through my chest.

In the past, whenever Lily's chest pains flared up, she would writhe in agony across the mattress. She would cry, smash whatever she could reach, and scream at the top of her lungs for her father to hold her.

Back then, Cyrus would always scold me with a cold face, saying that as a head nurse, I was spoiling our daughter into a brat.

But now, even though her little hands were ice-cold and her breath trembled with pain, she kept it entirely bottled up.

She had finally realized: only children who are loved have the luxury of showing weakness when they are sick.

Cyrus frowned.

Evelyn hurriedly started packing up their things. "Gillian, please don't be angry with Cyrus. We're leaving right now..."

She held Penny, trembling as though I were some kind of heartless monster.

In the past, I would have been shaking with rage at her manipulative, fragile act, turning on Cyrus in an explosive argument. But today, I just stood there quietly, my eyelids barely fluttering.

Cyrus spoke up suddenly. "Evelyn, pack your things and take Penny out. Lily's heart can't handle any noise."

Evelyn froze, her tears spilling over.

Penny began to sob loudly. "Daddy, I feel sick. I want Daddy to stay with me!"

Cyrus hesitated, looking at Penny with pity, then glanced at me.

I curled my lips into a faint, empty smile. "Since you care so much about Penny, Mr. Porter, it's only right that you go keep her company."

He froze, clearly not expecting me to say that.

He opened his mouth but found no words. Finally, he muttered, "I'll be back later," and yellowed under the weight of his guilt, quickly leaving with the mother and daughter.

The room finally fell silent. I expertly helped Lily change into her hospital gown and hooked her up to the monitors.

A short while later, my phone screen lit up. It was a message from Evelyn.

Gillian, I'm so sorry. Penny had another heart spasm just now, and she wouldn't cooperate with the doctors unless Cyrus held her hand. He might not be able to make it back tonight.

Attached was a video. In the video, Penny was sweetly holding Cyrus's hand, calling him "Daddy" while Cyrus wiped the sweat from her brow with absolute tenderness.

I didn't even bother to reply. I locked the screen and went back to checking Lily's blood pressure.

Cyrus didn't return until noon the next day, just as I was feeding Lily some liquid food.

I didn't demand to know where he had spent the night. Hysterics would only make him think I was being unreasonable, and ultimately, Lily would suffer for it.

Once Lily fell asleep, Cyrus handed me a velvet box. Inside was a dazzling pink diamond ring.

In the past, I would have wept with gratitude, thinking he had finally recognized my sacrifices. Now, looking at that ring, a wave of profound nausea washed over me. I didn't even reach out for it.

I used to love shiny things. But I could never forget the first time Lily was fighting for her life in the pediatric ICU.

While I was signing one critical condition notice after another with trembling hands, Cyrus was nowhere to be found. When he finally rushed over, he threw a cold diamond necklace at Lily as an apology.

At that exact moment, he had mobilized his company's entire medical network and special clearance to secure rare, imported targeted drugs for Penny, who was only suffering from mild chest tightness.

From that moment on, these expensive jewels became nothing but trash stained with my daughter's blood and tears.

Seeing me refuse to take it, Cyrus's expression stiffened. "Didn't you always love this brand?"

I took a step back, my voice flat. "Thank you, but I'm not used to wearing things like this anymore."

His hand remained frozen in the air, his face darkening.

That afternoon, when Lily felt a bit better, I took her to the mall. I wanted to pick out a thank-you gift for the wife of the hospital board director, who had helped us immensely with fundraising.

Just as we stepped into the high-end baby boutique, we ran into Evelyn and her daughter. Cyrus was standing right there, pulling out his black card to pay.

The sales associate beamed. "Mr. Porter is such a wonderful father. This limited-edition doll looks absolutely beautiful on Princess Penny."

Penny held the doll triumphantly, glaring at Lily.

Cyrus turned around at the sound of footsteps, his face instantly flushing with panic. "Gillian, I was just passing by..."

I pretended not to hear, pulling Lily straight toward the gift section on the other side.

Once I picked out a gift and headed to the register, Cyrus blocked my way. He grabbed an incredibly expensive castle playset from the top shelf and tried to shove it into Lily's arms.

"Lily, let Daddy buy this for you, okay?"

Lily shrank back, shaking her head in fear.

Penny ran over, pointing at the castle and shrieking, "I want that! Daddy, I want that!"

For once, Cyrus pushed Penny's hand away, saying coldly, "This is for Lily."

Penny stared in shock, and Evelyn's face paled.

Cyrus furrowed his brow, kneeling to look at Lily. "Why don't you want it? Didn't you use to love fighting for these toys?"

Lily cast a timid glance at Penny, hiding her hands behind her back. Her voice was barely a whisper. "If little sister wants it, she can have it. I have to learn to share."

It was as if Cyrus had been struck by lightning. He froze, completely paralyzed.

He suddenly remembered: every time Penny snatched away Lily's life-saving nutritional supplements, leaving Lily gasping for air and crying, he had scolded Lily with those exact words.

Seeing his face go entirely pale, a small, vindictive satisfaction bloomed in my chest. I bypassed him, holding Lily's hand as we walked out of the store without looking back.

Cyrus and I used to be the golden couple everyone envied.

I was the youngest head nurse at a prestigious metropolitan hospital, and he was the self-made CEO of a thriving medical equipment company, Apex MedTech. Everyone said we were a match made in heaven, and I believed our happiness would last forever.

That was until Lily was diagnosed with a severe congenital heart defect at two years old.

I watched over her bedside night and day, growing hollow and exhausted. It was during this fragile time that Evelyn returned to the country. She brought Penny, who suffered from the same congenital heart condition, and knocked on Cyrus's office door.

At first, Cyrus only visited them occasionally. Later, he sent his company's latest portable monitoring devices directly to Evelyn's apartment. He even began finding excuses to cancel the weekend plans he had promised Lily, spending all his free time with that mother and daughter.

I grew suspicious and confronted him.

He merely pinched the bridge of his nose, his voice heavy with exhaustion. "Evelyn is raising a sick child all on her own. She doesn't understand medical equipment. What's wrong with me helping her out?"

I wanted to argue, but seeing the red veins in his eyes, I swallowed my words.

My understanding, however, was only met with worse neglect.

When Lily needed a special nutritional formula to stabilize her condition, Cyrus approved the entire stock from his company's warehouse for Penny, even though there was plenty of inventory.

I couldn't take it anymore. We had a screaming match at home.

He shattered a glass on the floor, pointing a finger at my face. "Gillian, that's enough! You practically live at the hospital, can't you even take care of your own daughter? Penny has no one to rely on! Can you stop being so incredibly selfish?"

In that moment, I felt a deep, piercing chill. I was fighting death itself to save my daughter's life, while my husband was busy pitying another woman's child for having no one to rely on.

The final blow came on Lily's third birthday.

Lily suffered acute heart failure, and the monitors in the resuscitation room wailed frantically. The doctor told me to immediately secure the emergency defibrillator his company had recently imported; it was Lily's only hope.

My hands shook as I dialed Cyrus's number. Once, ten times, thirty times... Every single call was coldly declined.

I collapsed in despair outside the resuscitation room, my face covered in tears and sweat.

When I chanced to look up, I saw the television in the hospital lobby broadcasting a live news feed. It was a lavish charity gala called "Guardian Angels of the Heart."

On the screen, Cyrus stood in a tailored suit with Evelyn in a designer gown beside him, looking like a picture-perfect couple.

Facing a barrage of camera flashes, Cyrus announced with deep emotion: "As the CEO of Apex MedTech, I am establishing a ten-million-dollar fund for congenital heart defects in Penny's name. We will ensure no sick child is left without medicine."

The irony was like a rusty knife plunging into my chest, tearing my flesh apart.

My daughter was gasping for air on a cold hospital bed, unable to even cry. My husband was under the spotlight, spending millions to play the savior for another woman's child.

I dragged myself off the floor, staring at the bloodstains on my white scrubs. The last thread of my sanity snapped.

I ran out of the hospital, hailed a cab like a madwoman, and drove straight to the gala.

I broke past the security guards, reeking of antiseptic and stained with blood, and charged directly onto the red carpet.

The camera flashes went wild.

I shoved Evelyn away from Cyrus, pointing a finger at her. "What kind of saints are you pretending to be?! Evelyn, you are draining my daughter's blood to feed your bastard child!"

Evelyn shrieked, gracefully collapsing to the ground, shrinking behind Cyrus in terror. "Gillian, please don't hit me... it's all my fault..."

The surrounding media immediately erupted into whispers.

Cyrus's face turned livid, his pride utterly shattered. "Gillian! Have you lost your mind?!"

He raised his hand and slammed a brutal slap across my face.

The sheer force knocked me to the floor. My ears rang, and the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth.

I held my burning cheek, looking up at the man I had loved for seven years in complete disbelief.

Cyrus looked down at me, his eyes filled with nothing but disgust.

"When I was starting my business and had nowhere to turn, Evelyn's parents saved my life! I am repaying a debt of gratitude! As a medical professional, you don't even have a shred of basic empathy. Acting like a common hysteric here... I was truly blind to have married you!"

That single slap completely killed the last dying ember of hope in my heart.

I spat out a mouthful of blood and let out a cold laugh. "Fine, Cyrus. Let's get a divorce."

We signed the papers the very next day.

But I never expected Cyrus's cruelty to extend to a total annihilation of my life.

Shortly after the divorce, my upcoming promotion to Assistant Director of Nursing was secretly blocked and given to someone else. Next, my salary and performance bonuses were slashed to virtually nothing.

I knew it was Cyrus using his influence in the medical network to punish me.

Just when I was on the verge of being unable to pay for Lily's next month in the ICU, a miracle occurred. The hospital finally matched a perfect donor heart for Lily!

I fell to my knees that night, weeping and praying to every deity I could think of. But the cruel reality crushed me: I couldn't afford the exorbitant surgery and transportation fees.

While I was desperately begging everyone I knew for loans, Cyrus intervened like an act of god.

He threw an immense amount of money and leveraged his connections with the hospital board to bypass all procedures. He took that life-saving heart, the one meant for Lily, and forcibly had it transplanted into Penny instead!

Cyrus had absolutely no idea that the child forced to give up the donor heart due to a lack of funds was his own flesh and blood.

When I found out and ran to the operating theater like a madwoman, the green light indicating a successful surgery was already glowing.

In that moment, I experienced a despair that shattered my entire world. I bit my lip until it bled, my tears running dry, leaving nothing but an agonizing, visceral hatred.

The memory faded.

I sat quietly by the bedside, touching Lily's pale, cold face.

If I didn't remarry him, Lily wouldn't survive until the next donor match. I swallowed my tears and blood, put on a mask of compliance, and dialed Cyrus's number to ask him to take us back.

Now, I felt absolutely nothing for this man. Whether he slept with Evelyn or bought Penny mountains of gold was none of my concern.

As long as he transferred the funds into Lily's medical account every month, he could rot in hell for all I cared. I would treat him like a dead man.