PART 1
Emily Carter opened her eyes to a dry throat, a heavy body, and a deep ache in her side that felt as though someone had taken more than an organ from her.
The fluorescent hospital lights burned against her vision.
The room smelled of disinfectant, medication, and loneliness.
There were no flowers.
No balloons.
No thank-you card.
And her husband, Ryan Bennett, wasn’t sitting beside her bed the way he had promised before she was wheeled into surgery.
Emily slowly moved her hand toward her abdomen and touched the thick bandage.
That was all the proof she needed.
One of her kidneys was gone.
“Ryan…” she whispered weakly.
The door opened almost immediately.
Ryan walked in wearing an expensive blue dress shirt, polished shoes, and the expression of a man arriving to close a business deal rather than visit his wife after major surgery.
Behind him came Margaret Bennett, his mother, seated in a wheelchair and wrapped in an elegant shawl.
And beside them stood Ashley Monroe.
Ryan’s ex-girlfriend.
Pregnant.
Perfectly made up.
Smiling in a way that made Emily’s stomach turn.
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Emily blinked several times.
For a moment, she wondered if the anesthesia was still affecting her.
“What is she doing here?” Emily asked quietly. “Ryan, you told me you’d stay with me after the surgery.”
Ryan didn’t answer with kindness.
He didn’t reach for her hand.
Instead, he pulled a black folder from under his arm and dropped several documents onto her hospital blanket.
The edge of the folder landed directly over her bandage.
Emily winced in pain.
“Sign these,” he said.
She stared at him.
“What are they?”
“The divorce papers.”
The monitor beside her bed immediately began beeping faster.
Emily felt the room shrink around her.
“Divorce?” she whispered. “Ryan, I just gave your mother my kidney. Two days ago you promised this would bring us closer. You said your mother would finally accept me as family.”
Margaret laughed softly.
A cold, cruel laugh.
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