Anna tried her best to keep herself from falling apart, but she was still shaking all over. Her trembling hands were stained with Cadeâs blood, which still felt warm on her skin.
She thought about the time when Cade was kidnapped as a child. The men who had taken him wanted to throw him down to his death right before her eyes.
Anna remembered distinctly the fear that gripped her when she saw Cadeâs little body being lifted high above the ground, about to be brought down to his death at any given moment.
She could still picture the scene clearly, as if it had been ingrained into the deepest recesses of her mind. The memory still haunted her to this day.
Just then, a strong pair of arms encircled her, pulling her into a comforting embrace. Cooper held her close and murmured, âItâs okay. Heâll be alright. Nothingâs going to happen to him.â
There was an intense ringing in her ears. Her lips trembled, and she found herself unable to word out whatever it was that she was thinking.
Then, an urgent voice resonated next to her, saying, âWeâve removed the bullet and heâs no longer in danger, but heâs lost a lot of blood. He needs a transfusion immediately, but weâve received too many patients today, and right now, weâre short on supply for blood type A.â
Cooper answered hurriedly, âThatâs my blood type. Let me do the transfusion.â
âAre you related to him? Do you have any contagious diseases?â
âIâm his stepfather. Weâre not related by blood, and I have no contagious diseases.â
âThen follow me, please.â
Without a second thought, Cooper hastily traipsed after the nurse.
It didnât take long for the transfusion to be done, and after Cade woke up, the three of them made their way back to Ronney City.
Cade recovered well enough upon their return. There was color in his cheeks now, and he looked happy, too.
Cooper had given him a blood transfusion.
He beamed at the thoughtâCooperâs blood now runs in my veins!
This means that Iâm practically related to Cooper by blood.
He couldnât be happier or more honored about this.
However, he couldnât help but feel disappointed at the same time. It would be perfect if Cooper were my biological father.
If Callum finds out about this, Iâm sure heâll turn green with envy.
It was as if Cooperâs blood had done something magical to himâlike it had brought forth an incandescent glow from within Cade.
Meanwhile, it seemed as if Cooper and the Yard twins had grown closer after the incident.
He realized that he had taken the twins to be his own, albeit subconsciously. He felt protective of them at the brink of a crisis, just as he did when Sophia was in danger.
More to the point, the line âIâm his stepfatherâ felt like a declaration that was long overdue.
Anna, on the other hand, was equally overjoyed to know that Cooper had accepted her sons as his own. She had been worried all this while that Cooper might dislike them, knowing that the twins had Jordanâs genes in them.
Love might be an important aspect in Annaâs life, but so were her sons.
Her mind was at ease. Cooper wouldnât hurt her kids, and instead saw them as his own.
However, no one could have foreseen what happened next. A week after the transfusion, Cade began to experience inexplicable symptoms. Heâd been resting in the hospital when he came down with a fever, and he had a rash over his skin. These were followed by symptoms of gastrointestinal inflammation two days later, and when the medical report came back, it showed that Cadeâs total blood count was dropping dangerously.
At this, Anna panicked and began to consult medical experts.
It didnât take long before the root cause of Cadeâs condition came to light; his medical report returned with a diagnosis for Graft versus Host Disease, otherwise known as GvHD.
The probability of this happening was 0.01%, but when it did happen, the fatality rate was at 90%.
Upon seeing the fatality rate of this disease, Anna grew faint. She stumbled and collapsed into Cooperâs arms.
Meanwhile, Cooper was in utter disbelief as he stared at words âGraft versus Host Diseaseâ.
The disease was extremely rare, and the cause of it remained uncertain, but there was medical evidence to suggest that blood relation between the donor and the recipient could increase the risk of the latter developing GvHD. It was the reason why hospitals refused to allow patients to receive blood transfusions from those who were directly related to them.
Cooper was crestfallen as his gaze fell upon Cade, who had become unconscious in the hospital room.
His eyes then turned to the papers clutched in his hand, and he read the report once more in bewilderment. His mind was completely blank, save for the snippet of the conversation from the hospital the other day.
âAre you related to him? Do you have any contagious diseases?â
âIâm his stepfather. Weâre not related by blood, and I have no contagious diseases.â
Cooper felt his body sway, and he would have buckled under his own weight had Anna not reached out to steady him.
Annaâs pained expression mirrored that of Cooperâs. The both of them had a likely guess in mind, though it was bold for even either of them to have thought of it in the first place.
If this had been the past, Cooper and Anna would have been overjoyed if whatever theyâd guessed turned out to be true.
But now, they feared it.
A couple of hours later, the DNA test results were ready.
It turned out that Callum and Cade were indeed Cooperâs biological children.
In fact, they were Cooper and Annaâs biological children.
Cooper didnât know the cause behind this mishap, but what he did know was that Cade was his biological son, which was why he had developed chronic GvHD after the blood transfusion.
Having uncovered the truth, Cooper felt as if he was transported back to the nightmarish moment when he watched Sophia rot away in his arms.
He crumpled up the DNA test results and bent his head, letting the tears roll down his cheeks.
Callum and Cade were his biological sons all along!
He had only just reconciled with them, and now, he was going to have to say goodbye to one of them.
To one side, Callum and Anna had tears spilling down their faces.
Just then, a sudden thought seized Anna; her eyes were rimmed red as she thought about Danaâs text message, and her mind began to put the pieces together.
So this was what Jordaine meant when she said she was going to deal with Anna once and for all!
Jordaine must have been the one who swapped Jordanâs genetic sample with Cooperâs, and Anna was then inseminated with the latter in order to conceive the twins.
If Jordan ever were to find out that the kids were not his own, Anna might be able to come up with a couple of scapegoats to save herself, but there was no way Jordan would spare the twins. Anna would be forced to watch her sons die in Jordanâs hands.
However, seeing as Anna had retained a special place in Jordanâs heart all these years, Jordaine knew that the plan would not work out quite as well as sheâd hoped. As such, she decided to wait for the right moment, and sheâd remained waiting for over twenty years.
Now, the time was near.
If Jordan were to discover that Callum and Cade were not his biological sons, he would undoubtedly be outraged, thereafter killing them. Anna would be left all alone, and Jordaine could easily take away everything that the mother-and-sons trio had worked for all of these years.
How cruel of her!
Anna was overcome with a mixture of feelings, unsure as to whether she should be happy or devastated.
She was supposed to be happy, seeing as Cade was her and Cooperâs son.
But she was devastated all the same, because Cade was dying, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.
A 90% fatality rate offered little room for optimism.
Then, Cooper stood up abruptly and wiped away his tears as he said through gritted teeth, âThere has to be a way.â
He had once saved Sophia, and now, he would do the same for Cade.
He would not allow his son to die like this!
Growing grim with determination, Cooper made a call. âFind every person in this world who is researching GvHD. I have a new project in mind; the money and resources Iâll be pouring into it do not concern me in the slightest, as long as Iâm able to save my kid!â he barked into his phone.
Callum watched as Cooper strode away. He felt his heart wrench with emotions, but he was happy all the same.
It was the first time heâd ever been grateful for having a father.
Meanwhile, Jordan was over at Jordaineâs place. He had initially planned on visiting Cade when he first heard about the injury, but upon finding out that it wasnât fatal, Jordan shrugged off the visit.
After all, Cade was not his biological son.
As a matter of fact, it wouldnât have made much of a difference even if he was.
In the meantime, Cooper and Anna wasted no time as they transferred Cade out of the hospital. They told everyone else that he was receiving medical treatment overseas.
Cooperâs plan was to have Cade settled in Michel Medical Group so that he could receive medical treatment from the worldâs best doctor. Should all treatment fail, Cade would be put into cryogenic sleep until Cooper and the rest of the medical team could come up with a cure to save him.