Chapter 1

A virus outbreak had sent thousands of students in the school to hospitals for emergency treatment, including my daughter.

My husband, Hector Ziegler, was the nation's sole medical expert who had successfully developed an antidote.

He had promised to send it to our daughter that day, yet despite the mere half-hour drive, there was no sign of him after a whole day.

*****

I watched helplessly as life gradually drained out of my daughter's body.

In desperation, I dialed Hector's number to beg him to hurry up. To my dismay, his lover Sheila Garston answered his phone instead.

I broke down at that point and tearfully asked this heartless couple why they couldn't show some compassion to my only daughter.

The next second, I heard Hector's furious roar on the other end of the line. "It's only a viral infection, for crying out loud! The girl isn't going to die at once! Sheila's daughter has caught a cold and needs someone to care for her too. Can't you show some empathy?"

*****

The doors to the operating room swung open for the seventh time. The doctor saw my hopeful expression and gave a heavy sigh. Then he said in a tired voice, "I'm sorry, Ms. Charleston. We've done everything we can.

"If the specialty drug doesn't arrive soon, I'm afraid your child..."

He didn't finish, but I understood. I had watched helplessly as more than a dozen bodies were carried out of this very operating room.

Those bodies were once my students. They were bright, lively kids who used to call me "Ms. Charleston."

Before they went into the operating room, I held their hands and promised them that my husband, a scientist, would come with the specialty drug and save them.

I told them they only had to sleep for a while. When they woke up again, they would be back at school as if nothing had happened.

But now, they were lying in the hospital morgue, never to wake from their eternal slumber again. Eventually, they would embark on their journey to the roaring flames of the crematorium, where the dreams of dozens of families would be reduced to ashes.

The pharmacist who handed me the medicine said this virus slowly destroyed one's immune system. In the end, the infected person would suffer a slow, painful death as his body's defenses completely shut down.

As a group of anxious faces waited, the red light outside the operating room kept going on and off repeatedly until my frayed nerves couldn't take it anymore.

"We need that specialty drug!" someone cried out.

"I came out specifically to tell you this!" another barked sternly.

"It's not just your daughter. All the kids are waiting for the drug!" another voice said as a parent's sobbing plea grew louder.

With those words, the doctors hurried back into the operating room. I could only watch helplessly and try my best to contain my anxiety.

"Hector... That's right. I'm sure Hector can save her…

"She'll be fine... If I call him one more time, my daughter can be saved…" I mumbled incoherently under my breath.

My hands trembled as I kept redialing Hector's number. The phone screen was covered with so many fingerprint smudges that the text could no longer be seen clearly.

"He'll answer soon. Maybe he's already on his way with the specialty drug…"

Even as I tried to comfort myself, I surveyed the army of infection control guards screening visitors to the hospital and made up my mind decisively.

If Hector still didn’t bring the specialty drug, I would risk everything, including my life, to break out of the quarantine enclosure to get the drug for my daughter.

Just as I was about to launch my act of desperation, someone finally answered Hector's phone.

Relief washed over me instantly.

But before I could say anything, a cloyingly sweet voice spoke up. "Hello? Is this Mr. Ziegler's wife?

"My daughter caught a cold, and Mr. Ziegler is taking care of her right now. Is there anything you want me to tell him?"

I recognized that voice instantly. It was Sheila Garston, Hector's squeeze from university.

'Why is this woman everywhere? As if stealing my husband isn't enough for her, now she's after my daughter's life too! Caught a cold? Such a timely coincidence? She expects me to believe her?' Myriad thoughts spun wildly in my mind at that point.

I was shaking with so much rage that my breathing became erratic. My own daughter's life was hanging by a thread, but Hector was busy attending to someone who was clearly lying.

I hated this woman so much! But no matter how much I hated her, all I could do was force myself to calm down and keep the anger out of my voice.

"Can you pass the phone to Hector? Our daughter is seriously ill. She desperately needs the specialty drug to stay alive..."

Before I could finish, Sheila suddenly put on her best pitiful act and said in a voice on the verge of crying, "I'm so sorry, Ysabella. I didn't realize that your kid would need Hector to send some medicine just when my daughter caught a cold and needed his attention."

Hector's furious voice boomed out in the background at this point. "Ysabella, what the hell is wrong with you? I'm just taking care of Sheila's daughter for a while. Do you really have to be so bitter about it?

"Do you know that this child has caught a bad cold? If it's not treated properly, it can develop into something more serious, like bronchitis and pneumonia! Can't you be a little more compassionate?"

So that was why Hector hadn't delivered the drug. He was too busy fussing over his lover's daughter.

I wanted to tell Hector, "Do you know that your so-called devotion will not only harm all those kids, but can also get our only daughter killed?"

But somehow, the words that came screaming out of my enraged, quivering lips were these instead, "Even if her daughter's cold develops into something serious, even if she dies, it's none of my business!"