"Mei'er, you know you don't have to do everything he says, right?" Su Wan's voice came out weak, almost inaudible, as her trembling hands held An Mei Lin's palm between hers.
An Mei Lin drew in a slow breath, steadying herself, carefully suppressing the storm of emotions threatening to surface. She could feel the presence of the hidden camera without even looking at it, yet she acted as though it didn't exist.
Her fingers tightened slightly around her mother's fragile hand as she forced a sardonic smile onto her lips.
"Mother, I can handle it, okay? When has this daughter of yours ever failed at anything?" she said softly.
She tried her best to make it sound reassuring, to make it sound convincing but her lips betrayed her, trembling faintly at the edges. Before she even realized it, a single tear slipped past her defenses and trailed quietly down her cheek.
Su Wan's gaze softened, sadness pooling in her eyes as she watched her daughter put on a brave front.
"Mei'er…" she called weakly, her voice barely holding together. "This mother of yours has already lived her life. You cannot spend the rest of yours being that family's puppet because of me." She paused briefly, her breathing uneven. "I want you to live happily… to find someone good, someone who will truly take care of you."
Her words dissolved into a dry, scraping cough that seemed to echo painfully in the quiet room.
And then, silence followed...a suffocating, heavy silence.
An Mei Lin felt as though every emotion inside her was clawing its way to the surface, yet she held it all back with sheer force. Every instinct in her body screamed for her to break, but she couldn't… not here, not under their watchful eyes.
Her gaze drifted around the room, searching for anything to anchor herself.
The space was dim, the curtains half-drawn, allowing only a thin strip of fading sunlight to seep through. The pale light stretched across the bed like a fragile thread, barely illuminating the cold, sterile environment.
Machines surrounded the room, their steady beeping sharp and intrusive, each sound echoing in a way that felt almost maddening, as though it could drive a person into complete unrest.
An Mei Lin inhaled shakily.
This place…It felt less like a hospital and more like a controlled prison. Her chest tightened painfully.
For years, her mother had been confined within these walls under the pretense of treatment for a heart condition. But An Mei Lin knew the truth.
The entire facility operated under her father's authority, hidden behind layers of influence and power. His connections extended into covert intelligence networks that functioned beyond legal boundaries, handling matters that were never meant to see the light of day and her mother was one of them.
A suffocating pressure wrapped itself around An Mei Lin's chest, tightening with every passing second. It felt like invisible chains were pulling her down, reminding her of how powerless she still was.
She hated herself for it.
Hated the fact that despite everything she had achieved, she still couldn't free the one person who mattered most.
"Ms. An, you have ten minutes before the patient is required to rest."
The cold, impersonal voice of a male staff member cut through the moment from the doorway.
An Mei Lin's expression hardened instantly. She didn't spare him a single glance. Instead, she gently lifted her hand and brushed her mother's hair back with careful, almost reverent movements, as though afraid she might break her.
"Everything is going to be okay, Mother," she said softly, a small but steady smile forming on her lips. "I promise… I will be happy. And I will do everything in my power to take you away from here."
Su Wan could only nod weakly. Deep down, she knew her daughter's resolve was not something she could change. And yet, the thought of her only child being trapped in the same web that had destroyed her own life sent a sharp pang through her chest.
If only she had been wiser. If only she hadn't fallen for him. Maybe… just maybe… her life would have turned out differently and her daughter… wouldn't have to suffer like this.