I Ran Into My Ex-Husband on a Survival Live Stream

Chapter 4

The next day, the production team arranged for the guests to video call their families live on air.

When it was my turn, I didn't dial any of my relatives or friends. Instead, I called the hospital.

The second the line connected, the doctor's anxious voice cut through the line urgently.

"Family member of Noah? Your son's heart took a sudden, severe turn for the worse in the middle of the night. We've already moved him to the ICU!"

My knees buckled, and I almost crumpled to the ground.

"Doctor, is my son not going to make it?"

"We can't say for sure right now, but we can't delay his follow-up treatment any longer. You need to get back here immediately!"

I grabbed the director's arm so hard my knuckles turned white. "I'm quitting the competition! Please arrange the fastest boat possible for me. My son is waiting for me in the hospital!"

The director's face twisted with awkwardness. "Ms. Sullivan, if you drop out now, you can keep the individual prize money you've already won, but you'll lose your shot at the final grand prize of one billion dollars."

"I don't want it!" I was sobbing so hard I could barely catch my breath. "I don't want the prize money. I just want to go back and see my son!"

The entire live stream went dead silent.

Even the viewers who had been slandering me the worst before didn't type a single snarky comment.

Troy walked over. "Sophie, I can pay the 800,000 dollars medical fee directly to the hospital, but we still need to get to the bottom of that one-billion-dollar incident from five years ago."

I latched onto him like he was my only lifeline, nodding so fast my neck ached.

"I can write you an IOU, and I'll pay you back with bank interest. Please, just save my son first!"

He frowned deeply. "I'm not asking you to pay me back. I just hope that before we get the full story, you stop publicly accusing my mother, and at least cooperate with us to verify the records from back then."

I stared at him blankly. "So you still think I'm lying?"

"My mom and her assistant both provided evidence. I can't just assume they're working together to trick me based on your word alone."

After he said that, he softened his tone a little. "I'll take care of the medical bills. Just calm down first."

But I couldn't hear a word he was saying anymore.

Five years ago, I'd called him over and over again, begging him to come back and let me explain.

Now my son was hanging on by a thread, and he still wanted me to wait for him to "get to the bottom of it".

I slowly let go of his sleeve, my fingers going limp.

"Troy, the worst regret I've ever had is that I actually thought you'd believe me back then." I shoved him away and limped toward the dock.

The trailing camera stayed fixed on me every step of the way.

I clutched the rain-soaked hospital bill to my chest, not even having stopped to re-bandage the wound on my leg.

The barrage of comments flooded the screen instantly.

A: [She's throwing away a whole billion dollars, and you still think she's putting on an act?]

B: [She's clearly dirt poor, but then how do you explain the Harrington family's payment records?]

C: [If she never got that money, how the hell did she survive these past five years?]

I found out later that right as I stepped onto the boat heading back to the mainland, Troy finally remembered what I'd said to him earlier.

"If you really think you paid me, go check the bank records. Don't come at me with a bunch of papers your mom gave you."

He ordered his assistant to bypass the Harrington Corporation's internal systems and verify the original bank receipts and all signed documents.

After I left the island, the live feed focused on the investor section was still broadcasting live to thousands of viewers.

I ended up replaying that footage a hundred times later, every second of it burned into my brain.

In the footage, the assistant rushed over and handed him a thick stack of papers.

"Mr. Harrington, we found the original records. They're completely different from the internal documents we had earlier."

Troy jerked his head up so fast his neck cracked. "Did the money ever reach her?"

The assistant's face went deathly pale.

"The one billion dollars was indeed transferred out, but the actual recipient account didn't belong to Ms. Sullivan. The money went to the family fund controlled by Mrs. Harrington, the family matriarch."

"What about the payment confirmation slip?"

"There's no original copy with a real signature. The only one on file is in the internal legal system."

Troy crumpled the papers in his fist so hard his knuckles bleached white, the edges of the documents tearing under his grip.

"That's impossible! I approved that one billion dollars personally. How could she not have received a single cent of it?"

The assistant pulled out a yellowed agreement next.

"Mr. Harrington, we cross-checked every single original bank transaction and signed document from five years ago. The only document Ms. Sullivan actually signed with her own hand is this voluntary divorce agreement giving up all claims to shared property.

"It explicitly states that she is not requesting any financial compensation. Which means Ms. Sullivan left the marriage with nothing back then. She never saw a single cent of the one billion dollars you arranged for her."