Chapter 1

1

My husband, Garrett, is a judge. To save his dying first love, he signed an order that practically sentenced my kidney to her.

I tried to explain to him that I was already suffering from kidney failure. If I gave up one more kidney, I wouldn't survive the night.

Garrett only looked at me with pure disgust. "Savannah is fighting for her life, and you're still here playing these pathetic games for attention!" he roared. "Do you even have a heart?"

Under his legal authority and forced mandate, I was dragged to the hospital for the transplant.

In the end, as my system collapsed, I died alone in a cold, forgotten corner of the hospital.

......

While Garrett was outside Savannah's room, keeping vigil, I was lying on a frigid operating table, waiting for death.

Tubes were snaked into every part of my body. The beeping of the monitor sounded like a death knell, reminding me that my time was up.

Finally, my heart rate flatlined. At that exact moment, news of Savannah's successful surgery reached the hallway.

The emergency lights in my room flickered off, and my eyes closed forever.

Perhaps my soul was too weighed down by resentment because I didn't move on. Instead, I found myself drifting right next to Garrett.

I watched him hold Savannah, who had just escaped death. His eyes were red with relief and emotion. My heart, or what was left of it, sank into a bottomless pit.

I wanted to ask him if he had felt even a second of worry for me when we were both wheeled into surgery.

The answer was clearly no. After all, Garrett had hired the most ruthless lawyers to win the case against me just to get that kidney.

When they were harvesting my organ, the pain was so intense that sweat soaked through my surgical gown. I called him one last time, my voice trembling with a plea.

"Garrett, I'm sorry, okay? Please don't take my kidney. It hurts so much... I think I'm dying."

I had never begged him before. I thought that if I just gave in and took the blame for everything, he might show some mercy based on our five years together.

But Garrett only let out a cold, sharp laugh over the phone.

"Admitting you're wrong is the least you can do. Saving Savannah is your only shot at redemption."

"Don't think giving her a kidney gets you off the hook for all the ways you've hurt her over the years. We'll settle those accounts once she's recovered."

"You want to die? Fine. But you better apologize to her before you do!"

I tried to open my cracked lips to tell him I never did any of the things he accused me of. But I simply didn't have the strength left.

Garrett wasn't done. He added one final, venomous sentence.

"You disgust me."

The line went dead, and my spirit shattered. Every ounce of love I had for him for five years evaporated into nothingness.

He said I was disgusting. Yet, when he married me, he told me he'd love me forever. He said I was his first choice, his exception, and his only love.

Now that Savannah was back, he had completely forgotten his wife.

Garrett's hand gently stroked Savannah's face, as if she were a piece of priceless, fragile porcelain.

"Thank God... you're alive," he choked out.

His tearful voice and bloodshot eyes told me he hadn't slept a wink. But did he ever stop to think that I was already gone?

Savannah forced a weak smile onto her pale lips.

"Garrett, I'm so sorry I worried you. Where's Lyra? Is she still mad at me? I need to apologize to her."

She made a show of trying to sit up, but it was so obviously fake. Anyone with eyes could see it, yet Garrett was blinded by his own guilt.

Predictably, he gently pressed her back into the pillows and patted her head.

"Silly girl, Lyra is the one who needs to apologize, not you. You're too kind for your own good; people will just keep taking advantage of you."

A passing nurse watched them and couldn't help but comment.

"You two really are a devoted couple."

She looked at Savannah with a smile.

"While you were in surgery, your husband waited in the hallway all night. He didn't move an inch."

Savannah blushed, while Garrett's expression stiffened for a second. He didn't bother to correct the nurse's mistake.

Then the nurse's tone shifted into a deep, heavy sigh.

"It's nothing like the operating room next door. That patient was alone from the moment she came in. She died, and not a single family member showed up to claim the body. So tragic."

Garrett's face twitched slightly. For a moment, a spark of hope ignited in me.

If he could just piece it together and realize that the pathetic woman was me, would he have the decency to bury me?

I waited, but he only let out a shallow sigh.

"That is indeed tragic."

The light in my eyes faded. I laughed at my own stupidity. Garrett's world was entirely consumed by Savannah now; why would he ever think of me?

He didn't pursue the topic. He helped the nurse wheel Savannah back to her private suite.

As they passed the operating room where my body still lay, Garrett paused for a heartbeat.

He glanced inside. My cold corpse was lying there, but my feet were toward the door, so he couldn't see my face.

But if he had looked closely, he would have seen the scar on my ankle. I got that scar years ago while saving his life.