After My In-Laws Let My Daughter Die

Theater: NovelMaster  |  Language: English  |  NEW

Synopsis

My brother-in-law's son was diagnosed with acute leukemia. The doctor warned that without an immediate transplant, he wouldn’t make it.
After testing the entire family, only my six-year-old daughter, Maya, came back as a perfect match.
Brandon’s mother fell to her knees, clinging to my legs in tears, while my husband knelt beside her, begging.
"Chloe, only Maya can save Leo. I’m begging you."
My heart broke, and I caved.
Maya endured seven agonizing days of pre-harvest mobilization injections. She spent every night sobbing in my arms, clutching my sleeves in pain, before finally being wheeled into the collection room.
Yet the second she woke up from anesthesia, my sister-in-law, Rachael, took one look at the post-op care bill and turned on me.
"Thirty thousand dollars just to harvest a few cells from a little girl? Are you two scamming us out of our child’s life-saving money?!"
She tore up the billing statement right there in the lobby and reported me for medical misconduct and fraud.
I was suspended from the hospital.
Maya suffered a severe post-op infection with a spiking fever. An isolation room was ready, but they refused to sign the consent forms because they didn't want to pay.
When she passed away, Rachael stood right outside the ER and sneered:
"Good thing she died. Saved us a fortune anyway."
Three months later, Leo relapsed. The whole family came crawling back, begging me to use my connections to find another donor.
Standing before my daughter's gravestone, I looked at the more than one hundred missed calls lighting up my phone and smiled coldly.
"You pushed Maya to her death."
"What on earth makes you think I'd ever save yours?"
"Chloe! Open the damn door!"
At one in the morning, the heavy banging rattled the front door.
I had just stepped through the entrance after a grueling night shift, my coat still on, when Brandon’s mother’s hysterical wails pierced the hallway.
"Leo has leukemia! The doctors said we need an emergency transfer right now, or he’s dead!"
My chest seized. I didn't even put on slippers before rushing to open the door.
A crowd stood in my living room.
Brandon’s mother had wild, disheveled hair and had put her shoes on the wrong feet. Brandon looked pale as a ghost. His brother, Julian, was leaning against the wall, while Rachael’s eyes were swollen from crying.
She lunged forward, grabbing my coat, and dropped heavily to her knees.
"Chloe, Leo is only eight years old!"
"You’re a doctor at this hospital! You must have a way!"
I flipped open the medical records she thrust into my hands, and my fingers went numb with cold.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Extremely high white blood cell count. An alarming proportion of bone marrow blasts.
This wasn't something that could wait. He needed an immediate transplant.
I looked up. "Did you do the HLA typing?"
Julian’s throat bobbed. "We tested everyone in the family. No one matched."
He paused, lowering his voice.
"Only Maya is a match."
The papers slipped from my hand, fluttering to the floor.
"What did you say?"
Rachael’s eyes were rimmed with red, yet a faint glint of triumph flashed across her face.
"Chloe, there’s no other choice. Maya is a one hundred percent match."
Evelyn dropped to her knees with a loud thud.
"Chloe, I know this is asking a lot."
"But Leo is a human life!"
"Maya is such a sweet girl. She’d definitely want to save her cousin, wouldn't she?"
My mind went completely blank.
Just then, the bedroom door clicked open.
Maya stood there in her pajamas, clutching her one-eared teddy bear, rubbing her sleepy eyes.
"Mommy, why is Grandma crying?"
Evelyn instantly wiped her tears, putting on a sweet voice as she waved at her.
"Maya, sweetie, Leo is sick. You’ll help your cousin out, won't you?"
Maya looked at me, timid and confused. "Mommy, is Leo going to die?"
Rachael scrambled over, kneeling beside her and grabbing her tiny hand.
"No, baby. As long as Maya helps, Leo won’t die."
Maya looked up at me again, her voice shaking. "Mommy... will it hurt?"
My eyes burned, tears threatening to spill. "A little bit, baby. But Mommy will be right there with you."
Brandon dropped to his knees as well.
"Chloe, I’m begging you."
"Just this once. Save Leo."Looking at the room full of people, every medical instinct in me screamed to refuse.
Yet Maya gently tugged at my hem.
"Mommy, if I help him, will he stop hurting?"
I knelt down and gathered her small body into my arms.
"It will hurt you, Maya."
She buried her face in my shoulder, her voice muffled.
"If Mommy is with me, I won't be scared."
I squeezed my eyes shut. Finally, I heard myself whisper:
"I agree."
Rachael let out a sharp sigh of relief, wiping her tears as she stood up.
"Chloe, I always knew you had the biggest heart."
When I bent down to pick up the records, I caught the unmistakable smirk stretching across her lips.
It wasn't relief.
It wasn't gratitude.
It was the look of someone getting exactly what she wanted.
On Maya’s first day in the hematology unit, she began her mobilization injections.
When the thick needle pierced her skin, her entire frame shuddered. She didn't scream; she just bit her bottom lip until it turned white.
The moment the nurse pulled the needle out, she threw herself into my chest.
"Mommy, it hurts so bad."
I cradled her, my hands shaking violently.
"It'll be over soon, my love. Mommy’s right here."
By the second dose, she ran a low-grade fever.
By the third, bone pain racked her legs, and she clung to the bed rails, whimpering through the night.
By the fourth, the backs of her tiny hands were bruised black and blue.
On the fifth morning, the first thing she said when she opened her eyes was:
"Mommy, can I stop being a brave girl now?"
My composure shattered right there.
But Leo had already begun his conditioning chemo.
The oncologists made it clear: once the recipient’s bone marrow was wiped out, the donor could not back down. Stopping meant Leo’s immediate death.
Swallowing the knife twisting in my throat, I held her tight.
"Just two more days, baby. When this is all over, Mommy will buy you that huge strawberry shortcake you wanted."
Her eyes lit up slightly.
"The biggest one?"
"Yes, the biggest one in the bakery."
On the seventh morning, right before Maya was wheeled into the apheresis room, she suddenly reached out and gripped my hand.
"Mommy, what if I don't wake up?"
I knelt beside the gurney, pressing my cheek against the back of her cold hand.
"You will. Mommy will be waiting right outside this door."
She turned her head to look at Brandon.
"Daddy, will you wait for me too?"
Brandon’s phone vibrated in his hand—a SnapChat message from Rachael on the screen. He swiped it away, bent down, and stroked Maya's hair.
"I'll wait."
The doors swung shut. I leaned against the hallway wall, my legs trembling so violently I could barely stand.
Four hours later, the nurse emerged with good news: the stem cell collection was a success.
Before I could even exhale, screams erupted by the billing counter.
"Thirty thousand dollars?!"
Rachael stood at the desk, waving the invoice in the air, her face twisted in rage.
Evelyn was scowling beside her. "I thought this was saving a life! Why does it cost so much damn money?!"
I grabbed the invoice, forcing my voice to remain calm.
"Maya is only six. Her risks are infinitely higher than an adult’s. The observation protocols, the sterile isolation room, and post-procedure infection prevention aren’t optional."
Rachael suddenly let out a mocking laugh.
"Don’t you dare try to scare us, Chloe."
"I looked it up online. Stem cell donation is supposed to be an act of charity! The hospital is supposed to cover it!"
She shook her phone in my face.
"Why is it that when it comes to your daughter, my family suddenly has to fork over thirty grand?"
I stared at her in utter disbelief.
"Leo just received my daughter's stem cells! And you’re standing here counting pennies?!"
Rachael slammed the bill onto the counter.
"If I don’t count them, who will?!"
"A six-year-old girl gets poked for a few hours, and you bill us thirty thousand?!"
"Are you saving my son, or are you using him as your personal ATM?!"
Bystanders and nurses in the lobby all turned their heads.
My voice turned deadly quiet. "Rachael, watch your mouth."
Tears welled in her eyes on cue as she pulled out her phone and started recording.
"Look, everyone! Look at Dr. Chloe Vance! Using her position at this hospital to harvest her own daughter just to fabricate a massive bill and extort my family while my son is dying!"
Dizziness washed over me.
"Put that phone down."
She stepped back, wailing louder.
"What are you so scared of? Feeling guilty?!"
Evelyn chimed in, glaring at me. "Chloe, it’s not that we don’t trust you, but this amount is outrageous. You need to explain this itemized bill right now!"
Looking at them, a chill crept through my veins.
An hour ago, they were calling Maya their savior.
Now that the cells were harvested, they were ready to tear our throats out.By noon, I was summoned to the Medical Administration and Ethics Office.
Sitting across the table were the Chief of Medicine, the Compliance Officer, and the Chair of Hematology.
A formal complaint sat front and center.
The heading was glaring.
Formal Ethics Complaint: Regarding Dr. Chloe Vance’s Misuse of Position, Improper Protocol Concerning Minor Relatives, and Suspected Billing Fraud.
Complainants: Rachael Vance, Brandon Vance.
My gaze locked onto the last name. A violent shudder ripped through my body.
Brandon. My own husband.
The Chief of Medicine took off his glasses. "Dr. Vance, we need you to explain this."
I opened the hospital intranet system. Every single step had been logged properly.
Typing tests, donor risk assessments, informed consents, post-op monitoring orders—everything was there.
Until I clicked into the donor’s chart.
My stomach plummeted into an abyss.
Maya’s post-op risk disclosure was gone. The sterile isolation recommendation was listed as 'Draft / Not Submitted.'
The consent signatures were blank.
My palms broke into a cold sweat.
"Someone tampered with the system. The records were deleted."
The Compliance Officer frowned. "Are you certain you uploaded them?"
"I know I did!"
I whipped out my phone to show the signed copies I had photographed.
They were gone. The photos, the cloud backups, even my text exchanges with the head nurse had been completely wiped clean.
A sickening realization hit me. Last night, I fell asleep from pure exhaustion with my phone on the nightstand.
Brandon knew my passcode.
With trembling fingers, I dialed Brandon’s number right in front of the board.
It rang three times before he picked up.
"Chloe, you still have the nerve to call me?"
My voice was ice. "Did you delete my files?"
A beat of silence hung over the line.
"Stop pointing fingers. If your hands were clean, the hospital wouldn't be investigating you."
I let out a breathless, broken laugh.
"Brandon, Maya is lying in a hospital bed right now! She just endured days of agony to harvest cells for your nephew!"
"And you signed an ethics complaint against me?!"
Rachael’s sneering voice carried through the speaker.
"Chloe, don't drag the kid into this. We just want transparency. If you did nothing wrong, why are you so afraid of an audit?"
The Chief’s expression hardened.
"Dr. Vance. Effective immediately, you are suspended pending a formal compliance investigation."
A white sheet of paper slid across the mahogany desk.
A suspension order.
I picked it up. The paper was light as a feather, but it weighed down on my chest like lead.
As I walked out of the administrative wing, Nurse Wendy caught up to me in the stairwell, panting as she thrust a folded note into my hand.
"Dr. Vance... I just overheard Rachael on the phone by the elevators. She said, 'Step one is done.'"
I whipped around. "Who was she talking to?"
Wendy’s face was drained of color. "Your husband."By the time I sprinted back to the pediatric recovery ward, Maya’s fever had already spiked.
Her small face was flushed a violent red, while her lips were dry, cracked, and peeling.
She struggled to open her eyes, weakly lifting a trembling arm toward me.
"Mommy..."
I rushed to the bedside, scooping her hot body into my arms.
"Why is her temperature this high?!"
The floor nurse looked miserable.
"Her fever hit 102 at noon. We recommended an immediate transfer to the sterile isolation unit, but the family refused to sign the admission consent."
I gritted my teeth. "Who refused?!"
The nurse glanced nervously toward the door. "Her grandmother said to wait and see."
I marched out into the corridor. Brandon’s mother was sitting casually on a bench, picking at a takeout container as if nothing was wrong.
I smacked the plastic container straight out of her hand.
"Maya has a dangerous fever! Why didn't you sign the isolation transfer?!"
Evelyn glared at me, her tone nonchalant.
"The doctor said to monitor her first."
"Monitor what?! Her immune system is completely depleted after the harvest! A fever means an active, life-threatening infection!"
Evelyn scowled. "Chloe, stop being so dramatic. Kids get fevers all the time!"
"Leo’s treatment is bleeding us dry. You move Maya to isolation, and that’s another couple thousand dollars out of pocket!"
I stared at her, my vision blurring with rage. "A couple thousand? Your grandson’s life is precious, but my daughter’s life is garbage to you?!"
Evelyn’s face darkened instantly.
"Don't you dare talk to me like that! Maya is just a girl—she’s tough, she’ll pull through! Leo is different. He’s the only boy, the heir to the family!"
I shook with fury, nausea clawing at my throat.
Rachael stepped out of the elevator right then, holding her phone up, clearly recording.
"Chloe! What are you screaming at Mom for?!"
"The doctors said to monitor! You’re the one insisting on an expensive isolation ward. Are you just trying to hike up the bill again?!"
She leaned toward the crowded waiting area, raising her voice to a shriek:
"Look, everyone! She’s desperate! She’s trying to bully my mother-in-law into signing more blank checks!"
A crowd gathered within seconds. Whispers rippled through the hallway.
"Isn't she the doctor who got suspended today?"
"Yeah, heard she exploited her own kid to extort her in-laws."
A freezing dread settled into my bones.
Inside the room, a weak, frightened cry broke out.
"Mommy..."
I spun around and bolted back inside. Maya’s eyes were losing focus, her tiny chest heaving.
"Mommy... I’m so cold."
I wrapped her in the blanket, but her skin burned like fire against mine.
"Mommy’s here, baby. Mommy is taking you to isolation right now."
I scooped her up and strode toward the door.
Rachael blocked my path. "What do you think you’re doing? You don't have a signed order! You can’t move her!"
"Get out of my way."
She tilted her chin up defiantly. "If you touch that bed without authorization, I will report you to the board again right this second!"
Evelyn grabbed my other arm. "Chloe, stop this madness! We won't pay for this!"
In my arms, Maya weakly pressed her face into my neck, whispering through cracked lips:
"Mommy... don't spend any more money on me."
"It doesn't hurt anymore..."
Those words drove into my heart like a rusted blade.
I clutched her tighter, tears choking my voice.
"Mommy will spend everything. Mommy will pay whatever it takes."
Before I could take another step, Brandon appeared at the entrance.
He stood in the doorway, his face dark and imposing.
"Chloe, haven't you made enough of a scene?"
I stared at him, my heart bleeding out. "Sign the paper, Brandon. Sign it right now."
He scowled. "Rachael said we should monitor her first."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"Rachael said?!"
"Is she the doctor, or am I?!"
Cornered, his face twisted in annoyance.
"You’re suspended. You don't have the authority to call the shots here."
Suffocation gripped my lungs.
In my arms, Maya’s body suddenly gave a violent jolt.
The monitor let out a high-pitched alarm, and the nurse screamed:
"Her oxygen is crashing!"

Chapters (4)

Chapter 1   Chapter 2   Chapter 3   Chapter 4

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Watch & Promotions

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