CHAPTER 3
# CHAPTER 3
## "THE MAN YOU JUST THREW OUT... IS THE ONLY REASON YOUR MOTHER IS STILL ALIVE."
Connor stood blocking the entrance to the operating room.
His arms were outstretched.
His eyes were bloodshot with anger.
"I told you!"
"No one is allowed to bring him in!"
Robert remained still.
He didn't try to move.
He didn't argue.
Neither did he explain.
His silence only enraged Connor further.
"Have you had enough of your act?"
"Twenty-something years clinging to my mother wasn't enough?"
"Now you want to play the hero in front of everyone?"
Robert only bowed slightly.
"Connor..."
"Don't make your mother worry today."
Just that one sentence...
It made Connor laugh contemptuously.
"You dare mention my mother again?"
"What right do you have?"
"The right of a freeloading husband?"
"The right of someone waiting for a share of the inheritance?"
The venomous words echoed throughout the hall.
A young nurse turned away.
She didn't dare look at Robert anymore.
Because for the past eight months...
Every time Margaret had dialysis at three in the morning...
The person who always carried her from the wheelchair to the hospital bed...
It was him.
Every time she was in so much pain she cried...
The person who held her hand all night...
It was also him.
And Connor...
Many staff members had never even met him.
Connor turned to the chief doctor.
"Doctor."
"If you don't fire him..."
"I will file a complaint against the hospital."
"I am his biological son."
"I have every right."
Dr. Andrew Latham looked at Connor for a long time.
His eyes were no longer angry.
But it was disappointment.
He asked slowly.
"You think..."
"Family is determined by blood?"
Connor answered without hesitation.
"Of course."
"Blood is blood."
"Outsiders will always remain outsiders."
A silence fell.
Then the doctor turned to the transplant coordinator.
"Give me the file."
The woman immediately handed over the sealed white file.
Connor still smiled.
He thought...
Finally, the hospital was preparing to confirm his rights.
But instead of giving the file to Connor...
The doctor handed it to Robert.
"Mr. Hale."
"All the final tests are satisfactory."
"We are ready."
Robert took it.
He nodded slightly.
"Then..."
"Please save her."
Connor frowned.
"Save?"
"What do you mean?"
No one answered.
Connor began to feel uneasy.
For the first time...
He realized everyone in the hall was looking at him with a very strange expression.
No longer curiosity.
But pity.
He turned to Elaine.
"Why is everyone looking at me like that?"
Elaine sighed.
"Connor..."
"For months..."
"Have you ever asked the hospital..."
"...who was the person who passed dozens of medical tests?"
Connor furrowed his brow.
"What tests?"
"To be allowed into the operating room today."
Connor froze.
A strange premonition ran down his spine.
He looked at Robert.
Then he looked at the white bracelet on the man's wrist.
Only then did he notice...
It wasn't a visitor's bracelet.
It was a patient's bracelet.
Connor stammered.
"Sir..."
"Why are you wearing it...?"
Robert quietly pulled down his sleeve.
He didn't want anyone to see.
But it was too late.
Connor began to breathe heavily.
"No..."
"It can't be..."
Dr. Andrew Latham took another step forward.
His voice lowered.
"Since six o'clock this morning..."
"Mr. Hale has completed all the pre-operative procedures."
Connor still didn't understand.
"What surgery?"
"He's not sick."
The doctor looked directly into Connor's eyes.
Each word was spoken slowly.
"That's right."
"He's not a patient."
Connor was bewildered.
The doctor continued.
"He..."
"...is the donor."
Connor was speechless.
The hall fell silent.
But the real shock...
Was yet to come.
Because Connor still didn't know...
The man he had just insulted, pushed down, and ordered security to kick out of the hospital...
May you like
had secretly been preparing for months...
To give his mother a part of his own body.
