Chapter 3

A hush fell over the gala. All eyes were on Liam, waiting for him to crumble under the pressure of Jake Miller' s audacious public challenge. Jake stood there, smug and triumphant, basking in the attention. He thought he had won.

Liam turned slowly, a calculating glint in his eyes that wasn' t there a moment ago. He looked at Jake, then at Chloe' s triumphant sneer, and finally at the crowd of eager, whispering spectators.

"A wager?" Liam' s voice was calm, but it cut through the silence. "Fine. I accept."

A murmur of excitement rippled through the room. Jake' s smirk widened.

"But," Liam continued, raising a hand to silence the crowd, "not on your terms."

Jake' s expression faltered slightly. "What are you talking about?"

"Your bet is a joke," Liam stated bluntly. "Curing Miss Davis' s current condition is difficult, yes, but not the ultimate challenge. It' s a publicity stunt for you, nothing more."

He let that sink in before delivering his masterstroke.

"If we' re going to have a wager, let' s make it a real one. A true test of medical impossibility."

Liam' s gaze scanned the room, and then he spoke with chilling precision. "I won' t be treating Chloe Davis."

He then looked directly at Mrs. Davis, and his voice softened for a fraction of a second. "And I advise you not to let Mr. Miller treat her either. But that' s your choice."

He turned his full attention back to a now-confused Jake. "My patient for this wager will be Sarah Chen."

The name meant nothing to most people in the room, but a few of the medical professionals, including Dr. Evans, drew a sharp breath.

"Sarah Chen?" one of them whispered. "The girl from the same accident? Her injuries are ten times worse. Complete transection, plus severe nerve damage in her upper vertebrae. She' s not just paralyzed, she' s in a persistent vegetative state. It' s a hopeless case."

Liam heard the whispers and nodded. "Exactly. Hopeless. That is the patient I will treat."

He fixed Jake with an icy stare. "Here are my terms. You treat Chloe Davis. I will treat Sarah Chen. We have one month. The goal isn' t just walking. It' s a full recovery. Whoever brings their patient to this same ballroom, one month from tonight, fully healed and ambulatory, wins the wager."

The sheer audacity of the proposal shocked the crowd into silence. Liam wasn' t just accepting the bet; he was raising the stakes to an astronomical level. He was taking on a patient everyone considered a lost cause.

"He' s insane," someone muttered. "He' s setting himself up for a massive public humiliation."

Jake was momentarily stunned, caught completely off guard. He had expected Liam to refuse or accept meekly. He hadn' t anticipated this aggressive, strategic countermove. But he was trapped by his own bravado. In front of this crowd, with his reputation as a man who never backs down from a challenge on the line, he couldn' t possibly refuse.

Pride, slick and blinding, took over. "You' re on," Jake snarled, trying to regain control. "You' re a fool. You' re going to fail spectacularly, and I' m going to enjoy taking your money."

Chloe laughed, a sharp, ugly sound. "You' re pathetic, Liam. Trying to save some nobody to make a point? You' ll fail, and I' ll be there to see it. I' ll be dancing on my own two feet at your public disgrace."

Liam ignored her. He simply gave a curt nod. "The wager is set."

He then turned to a stunned Mrs. Davis. "A word of advice. Have a real medical team monitor whatever 'treatment' Mr. Miller provides. For your daughter' s sake."

He didn' t wait for a reply. The news of the impossible wager spread through the city' s elite like wildfire. It was the talk of every club and boardroom. A disgraced medical prodigy versus a celebrity daredevil. A million-dollar bet. Two paralyzed girls. It was a public spectacle of the highest order.

The next day, Liam went to the hospital where Sarah Chen lay unresponsive. He met with her father, David, who had heard the news of the wager and looked at Liam with a mixture of terror and desperate hope.

"Dr. Hayes... is this real? Are you really going to try?"

"Yes," Liam said simply. "I am."

He entered Sarah' s room. She was pale, her body still, the only sign of life the rhythmic beep of the machines connected to her. He remembered her from his past life' s final moments-not this still figure, but the brave young woman who had saved him.

He began the treatment immediately. It was a slow, arduous process. It required his blood, but not in the massive, life-draining quantities Chloe had demanded. It was a meticulous, controlled procedure, infusing his unique healing cells directly into her damaged spine, a little at a time, day after day. It was exhausting, but it was a righteous exhaustion.

After the first week of intensive treatment, David Chen approached him, his eyes filled with tears.

"Dr. Hayes, I... I don' t have a million dollars to match the wager. But my company... it' s a successful biotech firm. I will sign over fifty percent of my shares to you, win or lose. For what you are doing. For giving us hope."

He slid a folder containing the legal documents across the table.

In his past life, Liam would have refused. This time, he picked up the pen without hesitation. "I accept," he said. He wasn' t doing this for the money, but he would not be a fool again. He would take what was offered, because in this world, power and resources were armor.

A few days later, while he was overseeing Sarah' s physical therapy, Chloe and Jake appeared at the hospital. They had come to gloat.

"Look at you," Chloe sneered from her wheelchair, which was now adorned with Jake' s sports brand logos. "Playing doctor with a vegetable. How' s the 'miracle' coming along?"

Jake stood behind her, arms crossed, the picture of arrogance. "Heard you took a payout from her daddy. Guess you' re not so noble after all. Just a greedy vulture picking at a corpse."

Liam didn' t even look up from the chart he was reviewing. He was monitoring the faint but steady increase in Sarah' s nerve responses.

He spoke without turning around. "It' s interesting, Miss Davis. Stress and poor treatment can have... a degenerative effect. Even on healthy tissue."

He finally turned, his eyes cold and clinical, and fixed his gaze on Chloe' s legs, which were covered by a blanket.

"From the slight discoloration I can see on your ankles, I' d say your muscle atrophy is accelerating. You should be careful. Neglect can make a bad situation much, much worse."

His words hit their mark. A flicker of fear crossed Chloe' s face before she masked it with anger.

"You don' t know what you' re talking about!" she snapped.

But Liam' s observation, sharp and professional, had planted a seed of doubt. He saw it in her eyes. He had seen the early signs of tissue necrosis, a potential side effect of the reckless, untested methods Jake was likely using.

He had just given her a warning. A warning he knew she and her fool of a savior would completely ignore.