The Second Life of a Discarded Heiress

Chapter 457

When Sawyer returned home, he fell gravely ill. His fever soared to 103 degrees, and he slipped into a deep, unresponsive sleep.

By the time Norton Iverson got home from work, Sawyer was already unconscious. He didn't dare waste a second-he rushed him straight to the hospital.

Sawyer tumbled into a nightmare, trapped in a feverish haze, desperately fighting to claw his way back to reality.

Suddenly, the dream sharpened into focus.

A girl, hair tangled and wild, was tied to a hospital bed. Her helpless sobs clawed

at the air, raw and jagged. Her eyes, red and swollen, streamed with tears-and even flecks of blood.

She stared at him, pleading. "Daddy, help me. Please don't let them take my kidney."

Her frail, sickly face-so pale it was almost translucent-slowly overlapped with the real-life image of that cool, proud girl he knew.

Citrine.

Sawyer froze. Who would want to hurt Citrine? Just as he braced himself to rescue her from the operating table, he heard his own voice echo through the dream:

"Be good, Citrine. If you save Jeanette, I promise I'll treat you well from now on."

stood there, numb, watching Citrine on the hospital bed. Then he turned to the man beside him, speaking with a heavy, deliberate tone. "Theo, let the doctors begin. Once Citrine's kidney is transplanted to Jeanette, Jeanette will be healthy again. You two can finally start

believe those callous words had

this nightmare, did he even know Theo? How

sense of it, a raw, anguished scream tore

voice was

how can you do this to me? If Jeanette is your daughter, then what am I? You promised you'd always protect

life was ever meeting you-was ever

and unfeeling—and his heart twisted in agony, as if it

Citrine wheeled away into the operating

passed before the doors

and Theo exchanged a look, then hurried over to the doctor. "Did it work?" they

surgeon pulled off his mask, smiling. "The operation

"But

he could finish,

dead," the doctor replied.

cut him off again, impatient. "We'll talk later. I need to see my

word, Sawyer and Theo rushed off to Jeanette's

doctor stared

shook his head and muttered, "Unbelievable. Their other daughter is barely hanging on, and they don't even ask about her. That poor

more than to

followed them to