Chapter 10

　　The doctor took Maureen’s blood and sent it to the laboratory.

　　While waiting, Marcus Mo sat by the bed, holding Maureen\'s hand tightly, his face full of worry.

　　I wanted to explain to him that Tom and I are just friends. Nothing had ever happened between us. But now wasn’t the right time. Maureen\'s face was so white that even her makeup couldn’t cover it.

　　I had thought she had faked it to get me in trouble, but at this point I knew she had fainted for real. Did she faint because our argument had upset her so much?

　　When the results of the test came out, I learned that Maureen had leukemia.

　　No wonder she had been so pale. I thought she was just in a bad mood. She had such a serious illness, that for a time, I felt sympathy for her.

　　Dr. Ji works in the laboratory. He attended to her needs and looked at her affectionately. I wondered if they were friends like me and Fang Tom , or something more.

　　I have seen Dr. Ji only twice, but his feelings for her are too obvious. I think it is difficult to ignore. But Maureen seemed to care only about my husband, as far as I could tell.

　　\"I told you when I found out the results three months ago. The longer the wait, the worse the prognosis. You know her antigen type is rare, it\'s really hard to get the right bone marrow. Now that there is a match, we must perform surgery immediately. Otherwise, she doesn\'t have much time to live.\"

　　When Dr. Ji said this, he looked at me. It made me uncomfortable.

　　At first, I couldn’t understand what they were talking about.

　　Marcus Mo shook his head and said it softly. \"No. Wait until the child comes out.\"

　　Wait until the child is born. Are they talking about me? Am I the match?

　　\"She’s only four or five months along, Maureen doesn’t have that much time!\" Exasperated, Dr. Ji threw the test result on the ground.

　　Now, I was sure that the two men were speaking about me.

　　I really didn\'t expect that one day I would have such a close relationship with Maureen. Even her life depended on me.

　　They’ve known about her condition three months. At this moment, I finally understood that Marcus Mo agreed to my conditions, in order to let me willingly donate bone marrow to Maureen.

　　To be honest, I could get on board with that. Even though I hated her, if my bone marrow could save her life then I could give it to her, if only because she was Marcus’s step-sister.

　　Marcus Mo seemed to struggle, not knowing how to decide. Or was he just thinking about how to persuade me? Was there even a decision to make?

　　\"Abort the child and save Maureen,\" Marcus said. His voice is still gentle but to me it was like a knife had gone through my heart. The blood drained from my face.

　　Now it looks like he isn’t even going to give me a choice in the matter. My child and I are but pawns in his game. Just like that, he can sacrifice us for her sake.

　　And to think I would have donated my bone marrow willingly to save Maureen.

　　\"No, I will never abort the child...\" I coldly turned my back to Marcus Mo.

　　\"We can make another child, but Maureen can\'t wait so long. You must save her.\"

　　Hearing him say it, felt like a splash of cold water to my face. This cruel man had sent me to the cold operating table to be artificially inseminated. He didn’t care that I was a virgin with an intact hymen and the procedure hurt so much more than it should have. Now he wanted me to abort my child.

　　“No! Never!\"

　　I was in tears. I didn\'t want to stay there for another minute. I stood up and walked to the door.

　　\"You have to save her!” Marcus bellowed at me. “You can save her, and only you can do it! Because she\'s your sister!\"