I remained impassive, meeting the doctor's gaze.
"The ER says he'll make it," a nurse finally murmured.
I pretended disappointment, slumping into a chair against the corridor wall.

Later.
Vivian was officially declared dead.
As her widower, I handled the arrangements.
Linda Zhang retreated to bed, silent and withdrawn.
Only after Leo called did she force herself up.
"Owen, we wronged you! But Vivian's gone! You can't hog all her assets! Besides the legal share, her father and I deserve extra."

"You're young, you can work, remarry. We have no one left. Money is our only security."
Linda never liked me since the wedding.
She thought me spoiled, useless at chores, unlike her servitude to Vivian's father.
She'd harassed me at the firm countless times.

Demanding I quit, focus on my health.
After repeated refusals, seeing she couldn't control me, she stopped.
But I knew Vivian "adopting" Leo was Linda's scheme.
Vivian wasn't superstitious; Linda was devoutly religious.
"Vivian and I were already in divorce proceedings before she died. My lawyer handles it. Discuss your demands with her?"
"My lawyer is my father's friend. She protects myinterests. Not my sentimentality."
Seeing Linda's heavily streaked hair, I stated the facts plainly.
I handed her a business card.
"Owen, you heartless bastard!"
"Seven years married, you gave us no grandchild, killed Vivian's only baby!"
"Making us bury our child, stealing Vivian's hard-earned fortune? How can you face her spirit?"
Linda ripped the card to shreds.
She cursed me violently.
I left without another word.
A month later.
Vivian's affairs were settled.
My lawyer distributed the legally mandated money and property to her parents.
Exhausted from work and the years-long struggle for a child, I booked a cruise.
I planned to take my father on a trip.
The day before departure, Leo found me.
He tried to attack me. My bodyguards restrained him.
"Owen, why? We stole everything from you both, yet youthrive?"
"If Joan hadn't died... If Vivian hadn't died... Dad and I would be living the dream!"
"Life's so unfair! Dad and I fought so hard, yet couldn't beat fate's favorites like you! I hate you!"
After Vivian's death, Leo's cushy life vanished.
I'd sold the apartment Vivian bought him, emptied it completely.
After Joan and Leon died, Leo bounced between orphanages and scraping by.
No education, no skills, no work ethic.
Without Vivian, he was finished.
"You 'fought'? Fighting to break families? Fighting to be the other man? Leo, do you know what real effort is?"
"Real effort builds something yourself. It strives towards the light."
I signaled my bodyguards. Call the police.
Leo's drawn knife was enough for charges.
"And you? Did youfight? Born with a silver spoon! Without Joan's money, you think you'd have that fancy education? That cushy job?"
"Owen, stop the righteous act! I know you called Vivian deliberately!"
"You meantto rattle her! Cause that crash!"
Leo Rey was finally taken away by the police.
And he voiced his suspicions to them.
The police reopened the investigation into Vivian Garcia's car accident.
Combined with the dashcam footage and phone call recording I submitted,
They determined my actions did not constitute murder, nor were they criminal.
After all.
Everything I mentioned to Vivian Garcia during our phone call were answers to questions sheherself had asked before leaving that day.
What was my crime in honestly answering my wife's questions?
Was it myhand guiding the steering wheel that caused her crash?
While my father and I were on the cruise, Leo was admitted to a psychiatric facility.
According to my lawyer, after losing Vivian and the child, he was utterly devastated.
Following his failed attempt to kill me and his unsuccessful attempt to expose me to the police,
He had completely lost the will and the ability to go on living.
He descended into a world of delusion.
Fantasizing that Joan Zhao's empire hadn't collapsed, fantasizing that he, Joan, and Leon Rey lived together as a blissful, happy family of three.
(The End)