Viviana's POV

"I'm begging you, Viviana!"

Tears streamed down my mother’s face, each drop heavy with panic. Her eyes were wild with the raw terror of facing death.

"The treatment starts tomorrow. But without you, John won’t take me to the hospital. I nearly died giving birth to you. You owe me. You have to help me."

"Just once. Only this one time." She gripped my hands tightly, rubbing them as if she could warm my refusal into ...