No One Hurts My Daughter and Lives

Chapter 3

Half an hour ago, Serena Vale had just stepped off her flight when she received an unexpected call from Marcus Tyler. His tone had been cryptic, heavily implying that he had urgent, critical information regarding the daughter she had tragically lost years ago. Driven by a desperate, frantic hope, she had immediately abandoned her tightly packed schedule, leaving her management team in a panic, and rushed directly to the meeting point.

Now, standing before him in the private room, she felt a cold chill run down her spine.

"Your daughter, Liv Holmes... I have finally found her," Marcus Tyler said with a slow, deliberate smile. His gaze wandered shamelessly over Serena's figure, his eyes gleaming with an undisguised, predatory greed.

"What? You aren't lying to me?" Serena's entire body jolted as if struck by a physical blow. Her brows knit tightly together, a chaotic storm of disbelief and desperate yearning swirling in her eyes. She stared at the man across from her, her slender frame trembling uncontrollably under the weight of the sudden news.

"If you want to see your daughter, it can certainly be arranged. But I have one condition," Marcus purred, his eyes narrowing into a calculating slit. He leaned back comfortably into his chair, carelessly spinning a heavy jade ring around his thumb. "You must marry me."

"You are out of your mind..."

"I know exactly what kind of game you are trying to play, but do not think you can threaten me with something like this," Serena spat, forcing herself to maintain a fragile semblance of composure. She dug her manicured nails into her palms, using the sharp sting of pain to keep her voice steady. "Furthermore, you claim to have found my daughter. Where is your proof?"

She locked her gaze onto the man, her eyes blazing with fierce maternal instinct and deep suspicion.

Marcus had clearly anticipated this exact reaction. With a smug, triumphant chuckle, he casually pulled his phone from his tailored pocket, tapped open his photo gallery, and swiped to a specific image. He shoved the glowing screen directly in front of Serena's face.

"Liv, isn't it? Such a pitifully cute little thing."

Serena looked down, and the breath was violently knocked from her lungs. In the photograph, a tiny, frail girl was curled into a tight ball in a dark, filthy corner. She wore nothing but paper-thin, ragged clothes that offered no protection from the biting cold. But what completely shattered Serena's heart was the thick, heavy iron chain locked securely around the child's small neck, rubbing her delicate skin raw like a captured animal.

It was a horrific sight that would make anyone's soul bleed, but for a mother, it was pure, unadulterated agony. Serena recognized her instantly. Even though the little girl's features had matured and thinned out from starvation over the painful years, those eyes—those bright, distinct eyes—remained exactly the same. This was her flesh and blood. This was the baby she had carried.

"You bastard! What exactly have you done to my daughter? Where did you get this picture?!"

Overwhelmed by a tidal wave of suffocating grief and explosive fury, Serena lashed out. Her hand swung through the air in a blur, slapping Marcus violently across the face. Hot, bitter tears streamed down her porcelain cheeks as she screamed her accusations at him.

Marcus had not expected the normally composed superstar to physically attack him. Unable to dodge in time, he took the full, stinging impact of the blow. The sharp smack echoed loudly in the quiet room.

"Hmph. Serena Vale, is this your attitude?" Marcus hissed, touching his reddening cheek. His polite, gentlemanly facade vanished instantly, replaced by venomous rage. "You want to know your daughter's whereabouts, yet you dare to lay a hand on me? How insolent! Do you want to test me? Do you want to see if I can make sure you never, ever find her again?"

The brutal threat acted like a bucket of ice water dumped over Serena's head, snapping her back to harsh reality. It had been five agonizing years. No one knew the sheer, suffocating hell she had endured every single day. Even when the police, her friends, and the entire world gently told her that the missing toddler was likely no longer alive, she had stubbornly refused to give up the search.

Seeing that photograph had simply broken the dam of her suppressed trauma, causing her emotions to spiral completely out of control.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she swallowed her pride. "I apologize for my impulsive behavior. Please... tell me. Where is my daughter right now?"

Her voice was completely stripped of its previous heat, replaced by a hollow, icy calm. She knew perfectly well that she could not afford to offend this despicable man any further. Right now, he held the absolute only key to bringing her baby home.

"I have already told you my terms. Marry me, and I guarantee you will see her in the flesh," Marcus said, regaining his arrogant, commanding posture. "Of course, you are entirely free to refuse. But if you do, I imagine it won't take long for every major media outlet to receive a very interesting anonymous tip. They will publish headlines about how the beloved A-list star ruthlessly abandoned her own child for the sake of fame and fortune, leaving her to be caged and treated like a rabid dog. When that news breaks, your glittering career will be utterly destroyed."

He spoke with absolute certainty, every word a calculated dagger aimed directly at her greatest vulnerabilities.

"No... I didn't. That is a lie. I have been looking for her this whole time..." Serena whispered, her brows furrowing tightly as she stood her ground with stubborn defiance.

"Do you honestly think anyone will believe that? The public only believes what is placed right in front of their eyes. If you loved her so much, why did you hide her existence? Where has the child been for the last five years?" Marcus taunted, taking a menacing step closer. "Marry me, and none of these negative scandals will ever see the light of day. I promise you."

Serena glared at him with absolute, unadulterated hatred, her jaw clenching so hard her teeth ached. "I need to see my daughter first," she gritted out. "We can discuss everything else after that."

A dark, conspiratorial smirk touched the corner of Marcus's lips. He gave a slow, satisfied nod. "Very well. Let's go, then. I will take you to see your daughter."

However, the very next second, his phone erupted with a shrill ringtone. He answered it casually, but his expression instantly morphed into one of pale panic. He subconsciously shot a nervous, guarded glance toward Serena.

"What? I will be right there..." he barked into the receiver, hanging up abruptly.

Turning back to her, Marcus's arrogant demeanor had been completely replaced by urgent anxiety. "My beautiful Serena, a slight complication has arisen on my end. You should head back for now. Wait until I handle this mess."

Serena's heart leapt into her throat. "Does this have something to do with my daughter?" she demanded sharply, stepping into his path. "Marcus Tyler, I am warning you. If I do not get to see my daughter, I will exhaust every single connection and resource I have to utterly destroy you and the Tyler family. I will drag us all down together."

Marcus merely gave a faint, dismissive laugh, flashing her a deeply meaningful look before brushing past her and practically sprinting out the door.

Serena stood frozen in indecision for a fraction of a second before resolving to secretly follow him.

Just as her fingers wrapped around the door handle of her car, her own phone began to vibrate. It was her best friend, a doctor who worked at St. Mary Hospital.

"Serena... you need to get to St. Mary Hospital right now," her friend's voice trembled through the speaker, laced with absolute disbelief. "I... I just saw Aaron Holmes! He... he was carrying a little girl, and I think... I think she might be your daughter."

The expensive smartphone slipped from Serena's numb fingers, hitting the concrete with a sharp crack. Her mind went completely blank, the world spinning dizzyingly around her. Without another thought, she threw herself into the driver's seat, slammed the door, and sped furiously toward the hospital.

Blinding tears continuously streamed down her face, blurring the city lights into meaningless streaks of neon. She slammed the gas pedal all the way to the floorboard, weaving through traffic with desperate, reckless speed.

Meanwhile, inside the sterile, quiet halls of St. Mary Hospital, Aaron Holmes was pacing relentlessly outside the surgical ward. His jaw was locked tight, his dark, bloodshot eyes fixed intensely on the glowing red light above the operating room doors.

Serena Vale... if anything happens to my daughter, I will never, ever forgive you.

Every time the horrific memory of how he had first found his precious little girl flashed through his mind, a suffocating, murderous rage surged in his chest. How could he forgive Serena? If he had only known the truth earlier, if they had raised the child together from the very beginning, how could things have ever deteriorated to this nightmarish state?

Suddenly, the crimson glow of the surgical light snapped off, casting the corridor into dim silence. Aaron immediately halted his pacing and rushed forward as the heavy doors swung open.

"Doctor, how is my daughter?" he demanded, his deep voice carrying a tremor he fought incredibly hard to conceal.

The lead surgeon, wearing a surgical mask, shook his head with a heavy, grim expression. "The situation is not optimistic. We have temporarily stabilized her and pulled her out of immediate danger. However... we must find a suitable bone marrow match, and soon. Otherwise, it is only a matter of time before..."

The doctor let the sentence trail off, but the devastating implication hung like a death sentence in the cold air.

Aaron's face drained of color, turning a horrifying shade of pale as he stared blankly toward the operating room doors, his heart aching with an unbearable, suffocating sorrow.

Beside him, Reaper stepped forward, offering a deeply respectful, rigid bow. "Lord Holmes, please do not despair. I have already dispatched the orders. We are currently mobilizing our entire global network to search for a compatible bone marrow match for the young miss. We will have results very soon. Please, try not to worry too much."

Aaron waved his hand dismissively, an overwhelming wave of sheer exhaustion washing over his broad shoulders. "When will those medical experts arrive?" he asked, his voice low and raspy.

"Two of them are scheduled to land this afternoon, sir."

"The moment Liv is transferred out of surgery, you and the men are to guard her ward with your lives. Absolutely no one is permitted to enter without my explicit command," Aaron ordered, his tone laced with irritable, commanding authority.

Just as he turned around to issue further instructions, a slender, familiar silhouette appeared at the far end of the long hospital corridor. The moment their eyes met, it felt as though the entire universe abruptly slammed to a halt. All the background noise of the busy hospital simply faded away.

Even though the approaching woman was wearing a large mask to hide her famous features, Aaron recognized her instantly. His soul knew her.

The two stood completely frozen, their gazes locked onto one another across the distance, an invisible, electrifying tension snapping sharply between them.

But Aaron's eyes held no warmth. Instead, they rapidly darkened, clouding over with an icy, impenetrable layer of hostility, indifference, and profound contempt.

Serena felt a sharp, agonizing sting in her nose. Looking at this man—who had grown so much broader, so much more mature and hardened by the relentless years—a tidal wave of memories from their past crashed violently into her mind.

Her eyes instantly reddened, and two fresh trails of clear tears slipped quietly down her pale cheeks. Forcing a trembling, fragile smile onto her lips, Serena dragged her heavy, leaden feet forward, closing the painful distance between them.

"Where... where is Liv? I heard... I heard you brought her to the hospital..." she choked out, her voice barely a whisper, broken by quiet sobs.

But before she could even finish her sentence, she watched the man's expression twist into something utterly terrifying. The cold indifference vanished, replaced by an erupting volcano of raw, unfiltered fury.

"Do you even have the right to ask about her?!" Aaron roared, his voice booming down the corridor, echoing harshly off the linoleum floors.

"When she was dumped in a decrepit orphanage, completely alone and terrified in the dark... where were you?!"

He took a threatening step forward, his towering presence casting a dark shadow over her trembling frame.

"When she was being brutally bullied and beaten, chained up with a dog collar and forced to beg for scraps on the dirt... where were you?!"

"And now, when she is suffering from a terminal illness, fighting a desperate, agonizing battle against death itself... where are you, her so-called mother?!"

Aaron fired the words like armor-piercing bullets, his tone frigid and completely merciless. Inside his chest, a thousand more words, a thousand more agonizing questions, were lodged tightly in his throat like a bed of thorns.

He desperately wanted to interrogate this woman, to shake her until she explained why she had been so incredibly cruel. But what was the point? It was completely meaningless now. More importantly, he believed with absolute certainty that this heartless woman, who could so easily abandon her own flesh and blood for the sake of fame, wouldn't truly care anyway.