Chapter 2
My words left Dr. Evans momentarily speechless.
Derek’s face was grim, but he quickly composed himself, his eyes red. “Forget it, Alex isn’t to blame for this. It’s just my bad luck…”
“I’m dying now. My wife betrayed me, my family sold me out, I don’t even want to live anymore.”
“But I still have a daughter who just turned one. She’s so pitiful, abandoned by her mother, and her father can’t live on. I just can’t bear to leave her.”
“Alex, you’re the only good brother I have. Please, I beg you, raise her for me.”
Dr. Evans, ever the empath, let two streams of tears fall.
“Look, Mr. Miller is begging you like this. Just say yes. You’re his best friend, could you really be so cruel as to refuse? If so, you don’t deserve to be a man!”
Watching them play good cop, bad cop, perfectly coordinated, I felt nothing but disgust.
In my last life, I had too much blood drawn and was disoriented. Derek even colluded with Dr. Evans to set a trap for me.
I was genuinely soft-hearted, which was why I agreed to take care of his daughter.
But no good deed goes unpunished. My girlfriend was hostile toward this adopted daughter, believing her to be my love child with another woman.
She refused to listen to my explanations, packed her things, and left me, also falling out with her family.
At that time, I hadn’t even graduated from my Master’s program and couldn’t juggle both studies and the child, so I had to drop out.
Because my major was a combined Bachelor’s and Master’s program, and due to the circumstances, I didn’t even have a Bachelor’s degree; I was just a college dropout.
Without a good degree, I could only do arduous manual labor.
To better support the child, I worked three jobs a day, often sleeping only three or four hours.
And the child had poor health from a young age, constantly ending up in the hospital, even undergoing several major surgeries, with money flowing like water.
I gritted my teeth and took out high-interest loans, but with the interest compounding, I couldn’t pay them back at all.
The debt collectors were brutal, causing constant harassment for everyone, and my landlord refused to renew the lease, kicking me and the child out.
To avoid the debt collectors, I moved many times, living in dirty, dilapidated places.
After finally enduring the hardest ten years, I met a kind female boss.
She was divorced with a child herself and sympathized with my hardship, so she hired me to work at her barbecue restaurant.
After my job stabilized, I also thought about finding a partner.
However, I had no house, no car, nothing to my name, and I was raising a child in her early teens. It was truly difficult to date.
Finally, I met a simple woman from the countryside who seemed to genuinely not care about my financial situation. I thought I could settle down, but after less than two months, she ran off.
She only left me a note, apologizing and saying she could never let go of her ex-husband and child, so she had to quietly leave.
From then on, I completely gave up on looking for a partner.
Eighteen years passed. I painstakingly raised the child into an adult.
But at her celebration party, Derek, who was supposed to be dead, appeared.
And he claimed it was all just a test for me.
Did I have to be his friend?
I wasted the most precious eighteen years of my life!
Without that child, I could have smoothly graduated with my Master’s, joined a good company, had a respectable job, and a loving, happy family.
My life should have been thriving, but it was ruined because of him!
Even the child I poured my heart and soul into, chose her biological parents at the moment of conflict, and turned against me.
Thinking of this, the hatred surging within me threatened to drown me.
I clenched my fists, saying each word clearly, “No, I refuse.”
“I can send her to an orphanage, but I will absolutely not raise your child.”