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."

the man beside him, speaking with a heavy, deliberate tone. "Theo, let the

recoiled-he couldn't believe those callous words had come

did he even know Theo? How was Theo

he could make sense of it, a raw, anguished

voice was

to me? If Jeanette is your daughter, then what am I? You promised you'd always protect me—so

my life was ever meeting you-was ever agreeing to date

watched himself in the dream-cold and unfeeling—and his heart twisted in agony, as if it

Citrine wheeled away into the

before the doors

exchanged a look, then hurried over to the doctor.

surgeon pulled off his mask, smiling. "The operation was a

added, "But the

he could finish, Dream-Sawyer interrupted, "She's

not dead," the doctor

impatient. "We'll talk later. I need to

Theo rushed off to

stared

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

more than to punch himself in the face, but he was powerless to

followed them to