Regret and Redemption Chapter 1

To test if their new custom alloy arrowheads could pierce a human skull.

My wife's old flame's daughter, Hailey, used the pretense of getting my wife, Evelyn, to come home and reconcile with me.

She lured my special needs daughter, Lily, to an abandoned construction site on the edge of town.

She made her balance an apple on her head, a living target.

When I followed Lily’s GPS tracker watch and found her,

The alloy arrow shaft had already pierced her scalp.

Part of it was embedded deep in her skull.

I frantically rushed Lily to the general hospital our family owns.

I begged Evelyn, a leading neurosurgeon, to save our daughter.

Over the phone.

Evelyn’s voice was cold: "Hailey was an archery champion at five."

"Did you think all children are as slow as that... that thing you fathered?"

"If you want to scam me for sympathy money, at least work on your Photoshop skills."

"Why bother saving her when she’s like that! She's a lost cause!"

After hanging up.

Evelyn had me and Lily thrown out of the hospital without another word.

She even told all her colleagues in the city not to treat us.

To prevent "scammers" like us from wasting medical resources.

Later.

Evelyn would brutally sever one of her own fingers.

But she never managed to win me back.

* * *

After being turned away by the last specialty hospital in the city.

I sat with Lily on a small flowerbed planter by the hospital entrance.

Light snow drifted from the sky.

The alloy arrow shaft had already pierced her scalp.

Part of it was embedded deep in her skull.

Snowflakes landed sparsely on Lily’s face; the chill made her weak eyelids flutter.

She opened her eyes and managed a difficult smile at me.

"Daddy, is Mommy home?"

I fumbled to wipe away my tears and nodded quickly.

"She's home, she's home, Mommy's already home!"

"Really? That's great, Daddy. You won't have to work so hard all alone anymore…"

Hearing this.

The child in my arms smiled, her eyes crinkling with joy.

But as she smiled, the twenty-five-inch alloy-fletched arrow lodged in her head wobbled.

It made her already pale face look even more broken under the warm yellow lamplight.

"Really, of course, it's real, my Lily is the best girl!" I said. "Sweetheart, rest against Daddy for a little longer. Mommy will be here soon, and when she comes, we'll take Lily to the amusement park."

I wrapped my scarf tighter around her.

My numb fingers kept swiping across the screen of my old phone.

Dialing the number saved as "Wife" over and over.

The call connected, then was disconnected, again and again.

The child in my arms probably sensed something.

She fought to keep her eyes open.

Just staring at the streetlight glow, muttering to herself.

"Daddy, I was so brave today, I didn't dodge even once…"

"It hurt a little, but Hailey said if I didn't dodge, she'd make Mommy come home to us…"

"Daddy, when Mommy comes back, can we go to the amusement park together?"

"I don't want anything, I'll be good and listen…"

Besides the arrow in her head.

Lily’s whole body was covered in wounds.

Without exception, all were from arrows piercing her and then being forcibly pulled out.

I couldn’t even imagine.

This child, who was afraid of pain, afraid of the cold, afraid of the dark.

How did she endure being pierced by arrows time after time, and still stand back up through the pain?

Because of Evelyn’s orders.

Every specialty hospital in the city had turned me and my child away.

I could only swallow my pride and beg a nearby pharmacy for a few band-aids and two rolls of gauze to try and stop the bleeding.

This superficial treatment.

Still allowed blood to seep through her down jacket onto me.

I could clearly feel it.

My child's life was ebbing away with the unstoppable flow of blood.

I wanted to coax her to sleep for a while.

But that cold arrow shaft prevented her from lying on her side or her back.

Even the slightest movement sent agony coursing through her nerves, a heart-wrenching pain.

Countless times, I held my child and wanted to rush into the hospital.

To beg them to save her.

But every time.

I was stopped by the unyielding security guards at the entrance.

"Director Hayes already called, Mr. Miller. You really shouldn't be pulling these childish stunts!"

"Don't you know how strained medical resources are right now?"

"People like you, trying to use connections to jump the queue for a minor injury, only tarnish the entire medical system!"