Chapter 8
653words
I collapsed before my easel, unable to rise. As consciousness faded, I saw Samuel and Sebastian rushing toward me, identical panic etched on their faces.
I awoke in a hospital bed.
The sharp smell of disinfectant told me I'd been pulled back from death's edge once more.
Two figures kept vigil at my bedside: Samuel and Sebastian Sanders.
"Winnie, you're awake!"
"The doctor says if we find a suitable bone marrow match, there's still hope!" they exclaimed eagerly.
I regarded them, feeling nothing but exhaustion.
I contacted my attorney, Mr. Zhou—my father's most trusted confidant and the guardian I'd arranged for Sean.
Before the Sanders brothers, I dictated my will.
"I, Winnie Thompson, bequeath all future proceeds from my paintings to my son, Sean Sanders."
"All cash assets under my name shall establish a trust fund, supervised by Attorney Zhou, for Sean's upbringing and education."
"As for Sean's custody," I paused, my gaze sweeping over both men, "I fully authorize Attorney Zhou to find a suitable adoptive family for my son—one with absolutely no connection to the Sanders family."
Having completed these arrangements, I finally felt I could let go.
Until Sebastian Sanders burst into my room one day, waving a DNA report excitedly.
"Winnie! Look! The match is successful! Sean's bone marrow can save you!" he exclaimed jubilantly. "He's my son—of course he can save you!"
Samuel rushed in behind him, his face contorted with jealousy and anguish—envious that Sebastian could save me through "his" child while he himself lacked even that connection.
I looked at them and suddenly smiled.
Was my revenge truly complete?
No. One final act remained.
I turned to Sebastian and, with my remaining strength, said: "Sebastian Sanders, do you truly believe Sean is your child?"
The smile froze on Sebastian's face.
I turned to Samuel, who stood paralyzed as if struck by lightning, and offered him a cruel smile.
"Samuel Sanders, in the hospital I told you I was wrong... but I never specified what I was wrong about."
"I was wrong to overestimate your love and underestimate your cruelty."
My voice was soft, yet it exploded like thunder in both men's ears.
"I was wrong that day in the hospital. After you told me to 'get rid of him,' I still... wanted to keep him."
"That falsified paternity test cost me quite a bit of money."
Sebastian's face drained of all color. He staggered backward, mumbling "impossible" under his breath.
Samuel stared at me blankly, his eyes first lighting with ecstatic joy before being consumed by boundless terror and despair.
He finally understood.
I had killed his child twice with my own hands.
First at the Hundred-Day Celebration, when I declared the child belonged to another man.
Second at the end of my life, revealing I had been lying from the very beginning.
I used his only bloodline as the sharpest knife to pierce his heart. I made him believe he'd been betrayed and abandoned. Then, when he was consumed with regret and desperately craving this child, I revealed that the son he'd once ordered terminated was the very child he now cherished above all else.
He had forever lost his right to be a father.
I looked at Samuel's momentary joy, then at Sebastian's utter devastation.
One believed he'd regained what was lost, only to bear the eternal guilt of driving me and our child to death.
The other believed he'd schemed perfectly, only to discover he'd been a pawn in my game, all his efforts for nothing.
How perfect.
This was truly the perfect ending.
"Puh——"
Fresh blood gushed from my mouth, splattering the pristine white sheets.
I watched Samuel's face transform from ecstatic joy to terror to utter despair, and I smiled.
As I continued smiling, tears streamed down my face.
"Samuel Sanders..."
"You won..."
"From beginning to end, you've always won..."
My consciousness sank into endless darkness.
