Introduction

The biting Detroit wind cut through my worn coat.

Every day was a fight, cleaning floors, dodging debt collectors, haunted by the memory of my mother, Eleanor, walking out when I was five.

Then, after two decades of silence, her sleek black SUV appeared outside my rundown apartment.

Eleanor, dripping in luxury, had finally resurfaced.

But her return wasn't for me; it was for my bone marrow, to save her "perfect" son, Leo, who had leukemia.

She demanded my "sisterly duty," then offered a pittance for my life-saving donation.

Her lawyer even tried to intimidate me, threatening to expose my difficult past if I didn't comply.

It was a cold, transactional exchange for the body part she needed.

My bitterness festered.

Abandoned, struggled, and now, I was only valuable for my biology, a pawn in her meticulously crafted perfect life.

Was this my purpose?

To be a disposable resource for the woman who casually discarded me?

The injustice burned.

But then a mysterious informant revealed Eleanor's true secret: Leo was adopted, and her entire marriage to the tech mogul Jason was built on a web of deceit she was desperate to conceal.

My bone marrow wasn't just for saving a life; it was to protect her empire of lies.

This wasn't a request; it was a battle.

And I knew exactly how to win.