Chapter 1

1

My husband, a high-ranking judge, used his legal power to force me into giving up a kidney for his childhood sweetheart, Lana Fontaine.

I tried to explain to Zachary that I was already in the final stages of kidney failure. If they took one of my kidneys, I would die on the table.

He just glared at me with pure disgust. "Lana is fighting for her life, and you're still here playing these pathetic games for attention! Lexie, do you even have a soul?"

Under Zachary's forced legal decree, I was dragged to the hospital like a criminal to have my organ harvested.

In the end, the strain on my failing body was too much. I died alone in a cold, forgotten corner of the hospital.

......

While Zachary was standing guard outside Lana's room, I was lying on a frigid operating table, waiting for the end.

Tubes were shoved into every part of my body. The rhythmic beeping of the monitors sounded like a ticking clock held by the Grim Reaper, reminding me my time was up.

When my heart rate monitor finally flatlined into a long, haunting drone, Lana's room was filled with the news of a successful transplant. The emergency lights in my room flickered out, and my eyes closed forever.

Maybe it was because I died with so much resentment, but my soul didn't pass on. Instead, I found myself tethered to Zachary's side.

I watched him hold Lana, who had just cheated death. He was so emotional that his eyes were bloodshot with relief. My heart, or what was left of it, sank into an abyss.

I wanted to ask him a single question. When we were both being pushed into surgery at the same moment, did he have even one second of worry for me?

The answer was clearly no. Zachary had hired the most ruthless lawyers in the city to drag me to court just to save Lana. Under his own judgment, I was condemned.

When they were cutting the kidney out of me, the pain was so intense that sweat soaked through my surgical gown. I managed to call him one last time, my voice trembling with a desperate plea.

"Zach, I'm sorry, okay? Please don't take it. It hurts so much... I think I'm dying."

I had never begged him before. I thought that if I finally surrendered and took the blame for everything he accused me of, he might show me a shred of mercy for the sake of our five-year marriage.

But Zachary only let out a cold, sharp laugh through the phone.

"Admitting you're wrong is what you should have done years ago. Saving Lana is the only good thing you've ever done. Don't think you can skip the apology just because you gave her a kidney.

"I'm going to settle every single debt you owe her for the way you've treated her. You want to die? Then do it after you've crawled to her and apologized!"

I tried to open my cracked lips to tell him I never did those things. I never hurt her. But I had no strength left.

Zachary wasn't finished. His voice dripped with venom.

"You truly disgust me."

The line went dead, and my heart shattered. Every ounce of love I had felt for him over the last five years evaporated into nothingness.

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

But the moment Lana Fontaine came back, he forgot he even had a wife.