Part 3I Left the Old Love Behind

Lucas hesitated.

Lila cried louder.

The next second, he picked her up and left without looking back.

“Anna, I’ll explain when I get back.”

The ambulance arrived ten minutes later.

The paramedics lifted my mother onto a stretcher.

I followed immediately.

My body was swollen from the allergic reaction, my strength was drained, and I was consumed by extreme fear.

The moment I stepped into the ambulance, my vision went black.

I lost consciousness completely.

When I opened my eyes again, the sharp smell of disinfectant filled my nose.

I sat up abruptly, my heart pounding.

“My mom. Where is my mom?”

I staggered to my feet, ignoring the IV cannula still in my hand, and rushed out to find her.

A passing nurse hurried forward to stop me.

“Please calm down. You had a severe allergic reaction yourself. Your body hasn’t recovered. You can’t move around like this.”

“Where is my mom? I need to find my mom.”

I clutched the nurse’s sleeve, my eyes unfocused and full of panic.

I could not even form a complete sentence.

The nurse looked at me with a flash of pity.

“Your mother had severe laryngeal edema and anaphylactic shock. Her condition is critical. She has already been sent into emergency resuscitation.”

Emergency resuscitation.

Those words smashed down on my heart like stones.

Just then, a doctor from the emergency room hurried over.

“You’re Margaret Moore’s family member, right?”

“No one signed the surgery consent form. We called the emergency contact on your phone.”

“A woman answered and said she didn’t know you.”

“Fortunately, you woke up. Any later, and even God couldn’t save your mother.”

“Sign it. Hurry.”

My whole body trembled.

I stared blankly at the thin sheet of paper.

When I took the pen from the doctor, it felt impossibly heavy.

The emergency room light turned on again.

I collapsed onto the bench in the hallway.

The doctor’s words kept echoing in my head.

My emergency contact was Lucas.

The woman who said she did not know me was undoubtedly Lila.

My heart felt like it was being torn apart.

With trembling hands, I dialed that number again.

The call connected quickly.

Lucas spoke first.

“Anna, once you get your mother settled, come apologize to Lila.”

“There’s such a deep red mark on her neck. She cares so much about her appearance. What if it scars? How can you be so vicious?”

I thought I had misheard.

“I apologize?”

“Just now my mother was in critical condition and needed a signature. The hospital called you, and Lila actually said she didn’t know me.”

My voice shook with tears.

“If I had woken up a little later, my mom wouldn’t have been saved.”

There was a long pause.

Faintly, I heard Lila’s coquettish voice.

“Lucas, Anna has always disliked me.”

“But she can’t curse her own mother just because she’s jealous.”

“I’ve never heard of someone dying from a tiny bit of peanut crumb.”

Those few sentences seemed to wake Lucas up.

He spoke impatiently.

“Anna, stop it.”

“In these years, you’ve had allergic reactions thirty-seven times. Which time was life-threatening?”

“And my phone has been beside me the whole time. If you want to frame Lila, at least find a believable reason.”

“Put away that jealous look. It only makes me more annoyed and more disgusted.”

Before I could speak, he hung up.

I turned off the phone and sat stiffly on the bench, staring at the emergency room doors.

Finally, the red light went out.

The doors slowly opened.

The attending doctor removed his mask and gently shook his head at me.

“I’m sorry. We did everything we could.”

“The patient suffered anaphylactic shock combined with intracranial bleeding. The best rescue window was delayed, leading to organ failure. We were unable to save her. Please accept our condolences.”

With a thud, I fell straight to my knees.

My ears buzzed.

I could no longer hear anything.

My only remaining family in this world was gone.

I wanted to scream.

I wanted to beg them to save my mother again.

But when I opened my mouth, no sound came out.

The days that followed were like an endless nightmare.

Dragging my broken body, I took my mother’s ashes back to our hometown and handled her funeral alone.

During that time, Lucas never appeared once.

I went to the funeral home alone.

Handled the paperwork alone.

Chose the cemetery alone.

Set up the memorial hall alone.

During the day, I forced myself to stay composed and deal with everything.

At night, I curled up beside my mother’s grave and cried until I could barely breathe.

Lila’s social media updated every day.

Lucas took her to pay respects to her parents.

Took her traveling abroad.

Took her to meet business partners.

Someone teased him and asked if he had a new sister-in-law.

He only smiled faintly and did not deny it.

Meanwhile, I slowly calmed down and began quietly collecting evidence.

My mother’s death was not an accident.

It was man-made.

On the last day of sorting through her belongings, I found an old box under her bed.

When I opened it, most of what lay inside were photos of my parents.

Ever since Dad died unexpectedly five years ago, Mom had put away the photos because she was afraid they would make me sad.

I crouched on the floor and looked through the old things one by one.

My fingers brushed over the yellowed photographs, and my eyes reddened.

At the very bottom was a handwritten letter and a USB drive.

With trembling hands, I opened the letter.

My mother’s familiar handwriting appeared before me.

Only a few lines revealed a cruel truth.

It turned out that two years ago, in that car accident, the person who saved Lucas was my father.

Lucas and I had been dating in secret then.

At the time, Dad did not know that the young man he saved was my boyfriend.

Later, Mom saw the photos I posted of Lucas and felt it was fate.

But she did not want to use a life-saving debt to pressure anyone, so she wrote this letter, planning to give it to me when we married, so Lucas would know the truth.

Holding the letter, I was already sobbing so hard I could barely breathe.

Lucas, you owed me far more than one life.

Then my gaze landed on the few photos beside it.

Through my tears, the face of the driver in the crash gradually became clear.

When I recognized that person, dizziness hit me.

My vision went dark, and I nearly fainted.

How could it be him?