Chapter 5

Just as Claire's chemotherapy was beginning to show positive results, she received a call from her assistant. Dylan had been diagnosed with cancer and was in urgent need of a bone marrow transplant from a relative.

Claire was silent for a long time. In the end, she told her assistant to arrange the compatibility test. Despite the deep rift between them, she couldn't bring herself to simply let him die.

The results came back. She was the only match.

Her oncologist, however, reviewed her latest health reports with a grim expression. "Ms. Stark," he warned her sternly, "your body is extremely weak from the chemotherapy.

"Donating bone marrow now would be incredibly risky. It could lead to severe complications and could even be life-threatening. I strongly advise against it."

Claire knew her own condition, but she also knew Dylan's time was running out.

The day she returned home, a family meeting was called.

Maya sat by Dylan's side, her eyes brimming with staged tears as she looked at Claire. Every word she spoke was dripping with mock humility to make Claire look like the cold-hearted villain.

"Claire, Dad raised you for all these years. Now his life is on the line, and you're the only one who can save him. Are you really going to stand by and do nothing?" she questioned.

The eyes of every relative in the room turned to her. They were begging for a favor while demanding a sacrifice.

Silent, Evan stood behind Maya, looking at Claire's pale, gaunt face with a mixture of worry, guilt, and a powerlessness he couldn't bear to admit.

He wanted to speak up to stop this, but Maya's hand shot out and gripped his wrist, silencing him. He could only press his lips into a thin, hard line.

Claire's gaze swept over the room, finally landing on Dylan's face, which was filled with a desperate hope and a flicker of shame. She slowly closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were a sea of tranquil emptiness.

She picked up a pen and signed her name on the donation consent form.

The day before the surgery, Evan found her. He stood awkwardly in the doorway of her hospital room.

Claire looked up at him, asking flatly, "If it were Maya who needed the bone marrow today, would you let her risk her life?"

Evan froze. Words caught in his throat, but none came out. His silence was the cruelest answer of all.

A cold smile touched Claire's lips as she turned away.

The transplant was a success. Dylan's condition stabilized. But Claire didn't make it through unscathed.

The day after the surgery, she suffered a severe rejection response. A high fever raged, and her organs began to fail. She was rushed to the ICU.

The doctors issued a critical condition notice, saying her survival depended entirely on the next three days.

For those three days, Evan kept a frantic vigil outside the ICU, never leaving for a moment.

All pretense was gone, and his eyes were filled with nothing but raw fear and regret.

His hair was a mess, his face was unshaven, and he barely ate or drank. He just stared at the ICU doors, as if his gaze alone could keep the person inside from slipping away.

When Maya arrived and tried to pull him away to rest, her tone was laced with irritation. "Evan, don't be like this. Claire chose to donate. If you ruin your health, who's going to help me run the company?"

Her words ignited the fury that had been smoldering inside him. He violently shook her off with a violent jerk and roared at her for the first time, "Get away from me."

His voice came out raspy and broken, carrying the weight of a heart being torn apart. "If it weren't for you, she wouldn't be in this mess. I owe her a debt I can never repay."

Maya was stunned into silence by his raw agony. She looked at his bloodshot eyes and, for the first time, felt a genuine flicker of fear.

Evan ignored her, remaining anchored outside the ICU. He replayed his sins over and over in his mind, begging for a miracle. All he wanted was for Claire to open her eyes once more.