“Stay calm, Mom. Yuni is just sick. Liam will take good care of her.”
Liam’s voice came softly as he did everything he could to soothe the worry etched across his mother’s face.
He held Mrs. Sari’s fingers, which were still trembling violently, in the corner of the hospital’s VIP room.
Liam knew exactly what his mother was feeling.
Yuni’s hand really was cold.
Not corpse-cold, but the chill of human skin that had barely seen sunlight for months, remained under air conditioning around the clock, and had been fed IV fluids every second.
Mrs. Sari wiped her swollen eyes with the edge of her scarf.
Her gaze shifted to her new daughter-in-law, who still lay rigid and motionless with her eyes closed on the hospital bed.
“I know she’s sick, Son. But why does it hurt so much in my chest? It feels suffocating. You have to get married in a place like this, to a woman who can’t even hear you make your sacred vows.”
“Everything will be fine, Mom. What matters now is that Dad is safe.”
Liam gently squeezed his mother’s shoulder.
He tried to pass on some of his strength.
Even though there was hardly any of that strength left inside him.
That very afternoon, the financial storm that had choked the Adiprana family for years seemed to vanish within minutes.
Liam headed to the hospital administration office with a suitcase full of cash and proof of a transfer from the secretary of Wijaya Group.
One hundred million rupiah for Mr. Budi’s heart bypass surgery and ICU care were paid in full at once.
But Liam’s business was not over yet.
He then went to the local loan shark in his neighborhood.
A fierce, tattooed man who had terrorized his parents’ home with spray-painted graffiti and physical threats for years.
His name was Bang Renten.
On the porch of the cramped house, Liam handed over a stack of cash to pay off the entire principal, along with the crushing interest that had ensnared his family all this time.
Bang Renten chuckled.
“Well, well. Where’d you get a windfall like this, Liam? Which bank did you rob in the middle of the night?”
His hands busily counted the hundred-thousand-rupiah bills in front of him.
Liam merely stared at the man coldly.
He did not answer.
He turned around.
Then walked away.
The curious eyes of the neighbors followed his every step.
On paper, everything was over.
The debt was paid.
His father’s life had been saved.
And his mother would no longer have to cry in fear every time they heard a knock on their door at night.
Yet instead of feeling relieved, Liam’s chest felt even heavier.
As if something kept pressing against him from the inside.
That afternoon, Liam returned to their small rented house to clean himself up.
In the bathroom, whose cement walls were damp, he stood beneath the running water.
His gaze remained fixed on his reflection in the cracked mirror above the sink.
A twenty-seven-year-old man stared back at him.
Tired eyes.
Deep dark circles beneath them.
Facial features that seemed to have aged overnight.
‘One billion rupiah.’
The thought surfaced again.
The money was real.
Yet it felt poisonous.
Every rupiah he used to pay off the debt felt like molten copper pouring over his conscience.
He had sold his status.
Surrendered his future.
And pretended to be a husband for the sake of a transaction.
The most agonizing thing was the look in his mother’s eyes.
Mrs. Sari looked at him as if Liam were the family hero who had sacrificed himself wholeheartedly.
Without knowing that her son had sold his future and dignity before a conglomerate family.
“Liam, are you going back to the hospital?”
Mrs. Sari’s voice came from behind the bedroom door when she saw Liam emerge in a clean shirt.
The young man’s face was still pale.
“Yes, Mom. Liam is going back to Yuni’s room. Mr. Adrian told me earlier that I need to be there regularly.”
Liam put on his cheap watch.
Mrs. Sari gave him a faint smile.
Her eyes grew moist again.
“Good boy. Even though you two got married because of the circumstances, Yuni is now your lawful wife in the eyes of both the law and religion. You have to take care of her sincerely, okay? Don’t just go after her family’s wealth. Poor girl. So beautiful, yet tested with an illness that severe.”