“Give me that paper, Elena, if you don’t want me to drag you out of this hospital right in front of your dying child!” Dante’s scolding voice echoed throughout the charity ward.

None of the other patients’ families dared to intervene. Dante was known throughout the province as a ruthless moneylender who did not recognize the word mercy when it came to money.

Elena was kneeling on the cold floor, tightly clutching a torn brown envelope.

Behind her was the bed where her son Miko lay. The child was pale, sweating coldly, and struggling to breathe due to a serious illness that required immediate surgery to save him from death.

“You’re so pitiful, Boss Dante,” Elena sobbed pitifully. “This is the only inheritance my parents left. If you take the title to this land, my son and I will have nothing to take home when he recovers from his illness. Give me some time. I will find someone else to borrow from.”

Dante’s expression remained firm.

Without a word, he bent down and forcibly snatched the envelope from Elena. The woman fell to the floor due to the man’s forceful pull.

“Your time is up, Elena. You owe fifty thousand, and that land is your only payment,” Dante replied coldly.

He looked at the child, sighed, and turned his back on the mother and son.

“If you don’t have the money to pay the hospital bill, just take your son home before your bill grows.”

Dante’s footsteps echoed out of the ward, leaving Elena with a deep sense of desperation.

She sobbed as she hugged Miko’s hand.

The doctor had given a deadline: if no money was deposited before midnight for the necessary medicines, blood supplies, and the surgery itself, the child would never make it to the morning.

Three hours passed like a very slow and debilitating punishment for the soul of a worried mother.

Elena had made up her mind.

She would sort their clothes into the bag. She would just accept the bitter truth that in this world, poor people like them simply had no right to ask for a miracle.

At exactly ten o’clock at night, the door to the ward opened loudly.

Everyone gasped when Dante returned.

He was alone now, sweaty, his clothes wrinkled, and out of breath, obviously from running fast.

Elena closed her eyes and automatically blocked her son’s bed.

“We’re leaving, Boss Dante. Don’t hurt us anymore.”

Dante didn’t let him finish.

He grabbed a white envelope from his jacket and threw it at Elena’s chest.

The mother’s hand trembled when she saw the contents—a thick wad of money, and a receipt from the cashier named Miko, stamped “FULLY PAID.”

“The child’s surgery, medications, and room in the private ward have been paid for. The nurses will be moving him right away, so step aside,” Dante ordered quickly and annoyedly.

Elena was stunned, unable to believe it.

He looked up at the man, confused.

“What is this, Boss Dante? Where did this huge sum of money come from?”

“That worthless piece of land of yours,” Dante interrupted, his tone still rough, “I sold it to Donya Carmen. She’s been coveting that spot for a long time because it’s next to her hacienda, but that greedy old man is burdening you because he knows you’re in trouble.”

“I went to him earlier. I told him, if he doesn’t buy your title for half a million right now, I’ll build a big pigpen on your land so he can breathe the stench every day.”

“He didn’t do anything.”

“Take the change and use it so you can start a better and new life after today.”

Elena’s tears fell completely from her overwhelming gratitude.

She knelt down to kiss the man’s hand, but Dante quickly stopped her and stood up.

“Don’t kneel down to me, I’m not a saint,” Dante snapped, but his grip became more gentle.

Elena saw the deep sadness in his eyes as she looked around.

“Twenty years ago, my mother died on that very bed.”

“I knelt down too and begged people with money, but no one helped us.”

“I swore I would never return to this filthy room.”

Dante turned back to Elena.

“Nothing bad can happen to the child. I don’t want another toddler to experience the hell I went through.”

“Raise your child well.”

Dante turned his back on her and disappeared into the darkness of the hospital hallway.