Chapter 4
I braced a hand against the wall and slowly pushed myself upright. My blood was surging so hard I could taste iron at the back of my throat.
Moments later, Victoria walked in, holding a little boy by the hand.
He was dressed in a tailored little suit, and there was something in the shape of his brow and eyes that looked painfully familiar.
That was my son, Eli.
Hiding half behind Victoria, he peeked out timidly, studying my pale, haggard face.
His brows furrowed as he mumbled softly, “Mommy, this ugly lady looks scary. Are you really gonna take her kidney?”
Victoria gently fixed Eli’s collar, her eyes soft and warm as she soothed him. “Sweet boy, this nice auntie’s trying to help Mommy get better.”
Eli nodded half understanding. He pulled free of her hand and stepped cautiously toward me, his gaze full of disgust and distance.
He spoke earnestly, “Auntie, can you give Mommy your kidney quickly? Then she can get better and stay with me every day.”
A bone-chilling cold washed over me, my limbs turning weak and limp. I froze completely in place.
In his eyes, I was never his mother. Just a tool to save Victoria with a spare kidney.
David returned just then. Grabbing my arm without a flicker of emotion, he dragged me into a private side room.
He tossed a stack of cash and a divorce agreement onto the coffee table, papers scattering everywhere across the floor.
“Sign the divorce papers too,” he said flatly, no warmth in his tone whatsoever. “Once the kidney donation’s done, we’re even. Victoria and I have been together for a year now. She’s the only one who can give Eli a stable, decent home. You don’t deserve that. This is what’s best for our son.”
“Take the money and disappear for good. Never show yourself to Eli again.”
Staring at the scattered papers,
thinking of these four years of calculated torment,
my newly diagnosed terminal illness,
and the cold estrangement from my own son,
a surge of raging blood blurred my vision.
Black spots danced before my eyes.
All my endurance, all my compromises, every last shred of hope I’d clung to shattered into dust.
I shoved David away hard, stumbled out of the private room, and burst into the glittering ballroom.
Every gaze in the room locked onto me instantly. I snatched the microphone from the host’s hand, the cord scraping against the floor with a harsh, screeching sound.
“You’re all being lied to!” I screamed with every last ounce of my strength, my voice hoarse and broken. “Victoria planned the car crash four years ago! She stole my son, my family, my husband! She sent me into that toxic basement until I got osteosarcoma! And now she’s forcing me to give up my kidney!”
“David’s her accomplice! He lied to me for four whole years! They plotted against me together, determined to drain every last bit of value from my life!”
“I won’t let you get away with this!”
The crowd erupted into chaos, gasps and murmurs exploding across the hall.
Security guards swarmed forward, charging straight for me. I stumbled backward, step after step, until my back hit the floor-to-ceiling terrace half-open French windows.
The glass was icy cold against my skin. Night wind sliced through the window cracks, freezing me to the bone as waves of dizziness crashed over me.
Behind me stood my biased, exploitative parents, my indifferent brother, my traitorous husband, the woman who’d stolen everything from me, and my own son who’d never known me yet hated me.
Bracing myself on the windowsill, I climbed onto the ledge with my last bit of strength. Far below stretched endless dark sky, the night thick and pitch-black.
I stopped fighting and let myself fall.
The wind howled in my ears as my body plummeted. In my fading consciousness, I swore I heard Leo and David scream my name at the top of their lungs — Elena!
