Chapter 12

"Mr. Leroy, your mother's hospital fees have been overdue for a while now. If you can't make the payment today, we'll have no choice but to discharge her." I hung up the phone in distress. After having paid 500 thousand dollars for the surgery, I didn’t have enough left to cover Mom's stay. May seemed to sense my predicament and gently said, "If you're having trouble, you can tell me. We're partners now, and supporting each other is part of that." I bit my lip, realizing she was trying to spare my pride. Even though I didn’t want her involved, I had no choice. I couldn’t watch my only family die. "May, could you lend me some money?" She agreed quickly. "It's about Mrs. Leroy, right? Let’s go to the hospital now. We can’t afford to be late." A surge of complicated emotions welled up inside me, but there was no time to dwell on it. We rushed to the hospital’s payment counter. When I gave them my name, the nurse simply handed back the bill. "Sorry, but you don't have the authorization to pay this." I froze, panic creeping into my voice. "But you just called me to come and pay." The nurses exchanged uneasy glances. "Sir, please don’t worry. Let me check with my supervisor." The wait felt endless. My heart was in turmoil, and my thoughts were consumed with worry about Mom. May gently patted my back. "Kaelan, don’t stress. It’s probably just a mistake. They’ll sort it out soon." I nodded, but my eyes never left the counter window. Not long after, a doctor in a white coat came out from a side door. Alex Parker sized me up before speaking, "Are you Kaelan Leroy?" "Yes, I am." "Then, there's no issue here." Alex glanced at me disdainfully. "We're a proper hospital. We don't treat the families of murderers." The image of my frail mother in her hospital bed flashed in my mind, and my vision blurred with rage. "My mother has done nothing wrong! How can you refuse her treatment?" Alex scowled at my outburst. "And whose fault is that? You brought this on yourself. What can you expect from the mother of a murderer?" With a dismissive wave of his hand, he signaled for me to leave. "Stop wasting our time. We have plenty of patients to deal with. We don’t have time for this." May frowned. "How can you say that? This is a human life! Where's your decency?" Alex looked slightly swayed but sighed in defeat. "You only have yourselves to blame for crossing the wrong people. I suggest you transfer the patient as soon as possible. This is out of our hands." I didn’t need to ask to know who was behind this. My hands clenched so tightly that my nails dug into my palms. Sharon and Javin—they’d gone too far! I swore to make them pay dearly for what they’d done. "The most important thing now is getting Mrs. Leroy to another hospital. I have a friend who’s the director at a different facility. We can still make the transfer in time." I thanked May, nodding silently, feeling more useless by the second. I couldn’t even protect my own mother without relying on someone else’s help. My resolve only grew stronger. I had to develop and release my game, earn the money, and grow powerful so that I’d never have to rely on anyone again. The transfer went smoothly, and we arrived at the new hospital without any problems. I pushed Mom in a wheelchair, with May by my side to assist. Just then, Sharon appeared from nowhere, sneering at me with contempt. "So, you actually managed to get her into another hospital. But don’t you feel sick, using money earned with your body to do it?"