A single sentence from Micah quieted Harry completely, as he lifted his crimson eyes.
Hattie didn’t want him to die? She hated him so much, how could she not want him dead?
Harry thought he was hearing things. “What did you say?”
Hattie always said that her biggest regret was not stabbing him to death with the 29 stabs that missed vital points, and that one day she would make up for it with the 30th stab, to make it fatal.
Now that he had brain cancer, Hattie didn’t need to deliver the fatal blow. He would die in pain, and Harry had no desire to live without Hattie.
“Death is too simple for you,” Hattie said. “Your entire life, you never truly listened to her, or treated her well. Even though she helped you in her own way, she hopes that you can now promise her one last thing: to live well, hopefully to a hundred years.”
Hattie’s words were like a life sentence for Harry. For him now, living was the punishment. He had to endure all the pain Hattie had suffered in prison before he could even consider death.
What use was repentance? What was the point of sorrow?
“Also, let me tell you one more thing.” Micah opened the bag he had brought, took out a document, and placed it on the windowsill.
“When the Stewart family went bankrupt and your father died, it wasn’t really the fault of the Mason family. You resented them for not helping, but who said they had to? And why did you think they didn’t help the Stewart family? If they truly didn’t want to intervene, that necklace would never have ended up in your hands. And the doctor who treated your mother’s illness, if it weren’t for the Mason family, your mother would have died long ago.”
Harry’s pupils constricted. “What are you… what do you mean… who helped the Stewart family, what doctor? Micah, explain yourself.”
The guard beside him tried to calm him down, but he had no idea how to find peace. He pounded on the window, the glass separating him from Micah, feeling the urge to confront him.
Micah’s expression remained indifferent, with a hint of cold mockery on his lips. “The doctor who treated your mother’s illness, Dr. Steven, he was my teacher. Recently, when I was treating his poor health, I mentioned some past events, how he had performed surgery on a late-stage cervical cancer patient before, when he was researching another type of cancer overseas. One day, Mr. Mason called him back to operate on your mother. At that time, the surgery had a very low success rate, only ten percent, and only Dr. Steven’s experience with cervical cancer surgeries could improve the odds.”
As Micah spoke, Harry began to remember. The Stewart family bankruptcy, his father’s imprisonment, his mother’s illness and diagnosis of late-stage cervical cancer, all these were enough to crush the young Harry.
He had begged everywhere, but in the end, it was exchanging that necklace for money that allowed his mother to be hospitalized.
But cancer couldn’t be beaten by just being in the hospital. The surgery came with risks.
When he signed that consent form for the surgery, the doctor had repeatedly emphasized the high risk, that his mother might not survive it.
He had prepared himself, until the day before the surgery, when the hospital delivered some good news, saying that a professor who had returned from overseas would personally perform the surgery on his mother, greatly increasing the chances of success.
That professor was Dr. Steven. His mother survived, but before Harry could even think of how to thank Dr. Steven, he had left for overseas again, and they never heard from him.
His mother’s health declined, and although she survived the surgery, the old illness lingered. She lived for another ten years before passing away. But for Harry at the time, his mother’s survival was already a blessing amidst tragedies.
“I don’t believe it!” Harry’s tears were like an unstoppable stream, flowing down his cheeks and inundating his face with tears.
He couldn’t believe this was true, couldn’t accept this revelation that destroyed his life. Everything he had done to hurt Hattie, to destroy the Mason family, to make Hattie’s parents suffer in prison or take their own lives, all based on lies. The truth was that the Mason family had never harmed the Stewart family, had even secretly helped them during their bankruptcy. His mother’s ten extra years were also thanks to the Mason family, and it was Hattie who had saved him from the depths of despair.
How could he accept this complete mess of a situation?
Why be so cruel, why reveal such a harsh truth when it was irreversible, forcing him to confront his mistakes? How could he face Hattie when he was unworthy?
Micah seemed to have anticipated Harry’s disbelief, his face showing little reaction, no desire to explain further.
“I’ll have the guard bring in this document for you to read closely later.” You can never awaken one who pretends to sleep. No matter how much he said now, it would be useless.
“Harry, think carefully. Dr. Steven maintained relations with the Mason family all along, and this information was collected by Dr. Steven himself. Hattie’s father had helped Dr. Steven in the past, there was a debt owed. Why else would he have traveled so far to operate on your mother and then leave again? Do you think it was just luck? No, it was because Dr. Steven felt indebted to Hattie’s father, and that’s why he performed the surgery. If you still don’t believe after reading this, then I can only say you’re blinded by your own denial. You’re not even willing to admit your mistakes, how can you face Hattie? You simply don’t deserve to exist.”