The Day Our Promise Breaks

After a while, the call finally connected. Charles's hoarse voice came through on the other end. "Who is this?"

Charles hadn't slept all night.

"Charles, Sandy's in the hospital right now. The doctor says there's nothing else they can do. Please, you have to help her. You're the only one who can save Sandy..."

Dahlia's plea was abruptly cut short when Charles hung up without a word.

On the hospital bed, Sandy was barely hanging on, the doctors fighting for her last breath.

She heard her mother calling her father, and for a moment, her clouded eyes brightened, a spark of hope flickering within them.

Her lips trembled as she whispered, barely audible, "Daddy..."

But when she saw her father hang up, that little spark was instantly snuffed out.

Panic welled up in Dahlia's chest. She called again.

The call went through-Charles hadn't blocked her number.

He was still soft-hearted, after all.

If not, knowing it was her, he would have blocked her immediately.

That tiny sliver of hope pushed her on.

No answer the first time, she tried again.

No answer the second time, she called a third.

Again and again.

With every unanswered call, her panic grew.

Because Sandy's condition was getting worse by the minute.

A nurse watched quietly from the side.

This scene-Dahlia frantically calling for help-was all too familiar. It was just like when Charlie's mother had learned that her son's kidney had been taken by someone else and he couldn't get the transplant. She had stood outside the operating room, desperately dialing a number that no one ever answered, over and over.

But there was a difference. You could tell, just by looking, that Charlie's mother had truly loved her son, terrified at the thought of losing him.

The woman in front of her, Dahlia, was panicked and afraid, but her face betrayed not a hint of genuine care for her daughter.

In fact, since she'd arrived, she hadn't even looked Sandy in the eye.

"Ugh!"

Dahlia had no idea how many times she'd called, but no one ever picked up.

She knew, deep down, what it meant.

Charles hadn't blocked her, not because he cared about Sandy.

It was deliberate.

He left her that sliver of hope on purpose.

Letting her call again and again, torturing her with false hope.

Dahlia was right.

Charles was doing it on purpose.

Before Dahlia had even called, he already knew about Sandy's condition.

The doctor had contacted him directly.

Because of his prior concern for Sandy, as soon as her fever worsened and turned into an infection, the hospital reached out to him immediately.

They told him everything.

They also told him that if she had been taken to the hospital as soon as the fever started, things could have been controlled.

But instead, when Sandy fell ill,

Dahlia

didn't bring her to the hospital. She deliberately brought

Sto Charles's house.

Her intentions were all too clear.

In fact, this fever might even have been a scheme cooked up by mother and daughter together.

They'd do anything to make him feel guilty-there was nothing they wouldn't try.

"You did your best. That's all anyone could ask," Charles finally said to the doctor before hanging up.noveldrama

He would never tell the doctors not to save Sandy.

But if she couldn't be saved, it was the result of their own actions.

As Eve had said, if anything happened to Sandy, it would be Dahlia's karma coming back to haunt her.

He certainly wasn't going to pull strings, call in specialists, and move heaven and earth for Sandy again.

Those two didn't deserve it.

A short while after hanging up, his phone rang again.

He knew it was Dahlia, borrowing someone else's phone to call him for help.

Hearing her beg, Charles couldn't

help but recall the day of Charlie's surgery-how Eve had also called him again and again, desperate for help.

But Dahlia, that vicious woman, knowing full well it was Charlie's life on the line,

had secretly put his phone on silent.

He hadn't heard a single ring, leaving Eve in utter despair, calling again and again, with no answer.

He didn't dare imagine the weight

Eve had carried, knowing Charliet would die without that surgery, her

hands shaking, her voice breaking as she called for help. fo

Every unanswered call was another wound to Eve's heart.

Each time the call went to voicemail, her hope died a little more.

Until, finally, the doctor told her it was too late.

How much pain must she have felt?

Charles's eyes burned with unshed tears.

He couldn't turn back time. He couldn't go back to that day, answer that first call, and change everything.

But now, with Dahlia at his mercy, he had no intention of making things easy for

her.

Whatever love Dahlia claimed to have for her child, it couldn't compare to Eve's.

Still, Charles knew-Dahlia was terrified of losing Sandy.

After his conversation with Wesley, he was even more certain.

Dahlia was well aware that if anything happened to Sandy, Wesley would never keep quiet.

So he let her taste the same desperation, the same helplessness of unanswered calls.

Realizing this, Dahlia's anger boiled over-she nearly smashed her phone.

The nurse had been watching her closely.

So, as Dahlia raised her arm, the nurse darted forward and snatched her own phone back before it could hit the ground.

Seriously, what a mess!

The young nurse was about to slip her phone into her pocket and leave when a

small, icy hand caught her wrist.

The nurse stopped, following the hand back to Sandy.

Sandy's eyes were already growing unfocused.