Chapter 2
The doctor next to him was still comforting him, saying it wasn’t his fault, that it was my privilege to donate a kidney to him.
And me, like a lamb to the slaughter, I was wheeled onto the cold operating table.
Evie personally supervised, telling the anesthesiologist to put me under quickly.
My violent struggles slowly stopped as the drugs took effect.
As my consciousness faded, Evie leaned down, her warm breath on my ear, her voice soft but with a chilling certainty.
“Don’t worry, Ethan. I won’t let you die.”
“Once you’ve paid this debt, we won’t owe the Vances anything. We’ll live a good life, away from all this mess, happy together forever, just like we planned. We’ll go to Tuscany, or anywhere you want.”
Evie was so confident. Those hands that had performed miracles in surgery so many times now seemed sure they could control everything.
In the operating room, under the bright lights, I lay there quietly.
Evie was completely focused on the surgery, her movements precise and elegant, like she was creating a work of art.
Finally, she carefully removed my only healthy kidney and placed it gently into a sterile container.
She immediately took the kidney, cradling it like a precious treasure, and rushed to Lucas’s operating room next door.
Before she left, without looking back, she told her colleague, Dr. Miller, “Stitch Lucas’s bad kidney back into Ethan. Try to make it as painless as possible for him.”
But when Dr. Miller placed that partially dead, hideous-looking kidney into my empty abdomen, the monitor suddenly blared an alarm.
“What’s happening? I haven’t even started suturing! How did he… die?” Dr. Miller sounded panicked.
A nurse nearby just shrugged. “So what if he died? No big deal. He was just a burden to Dr. Reed and the Vances. The world’s better off without him.”
“Didn’t you see how much trouble he caused Dr. Reed, Mr. Lucas, and the Vances? It’s better this way, a clean break.”
Dr. Miller hesitated. He felt he should tell Evie.
But then he remembered Evie was in the middle of a critical transplant for her “beloved fiancé” Lucas and couldn’t be distracted.
So, Dr. Miller hastily stitched the rotten kidney into my body and pretended nothing had happened. He didn’t even bother with a proper connection; a dead man wouldn’t need it.
He planned to tell Evie the “unfortunate” news later, when she was done and calmer.
After all that, a monitor tech walked over to Dr. Miller.
“Guess the guy knew he was useless. Actually signed a body donation form before he died, specifically for teaching and research.” The man waved a document. The signature read “Ethan Vance,” but the handwriting was sloppy, definitely not mine.
“The medical school put in a request for a fresh cadaver for dissection a few days ago. We can send him over today. At least he’s useful for something now.”
With that forged donation form, they ordered someone to deal with my body, like a piece of discarded medical waste.
Meanwhile, with Evie.
After she successfully transplanted the kidney into Lucas and saw his vitals stabilize, she finally let out a breath of relief, a tired but satisfied smile on her face.
But when she returned to my previous operating room, it was empty, except for Dr. Miller cleaning up.
“Where’s Ethan? Did he go to recovery?” Evie asked.
Dr. Miller’s eyes flickered. “Oh… him. He wasn’t doing too well. Mr. Vance used his connections to transfer him to a specialized rehab center. For better long-term care, he said.” He quickly made up a lie.
Evie found it a bit strange, but knowing Richard Vance, she didn’t question it further. That old fox always had his unexpected ways. Right now, she just wanted to see Lucas.
When she got to Lucas’s VIP room, she saw him lying there looking “weak,” with the Vances fussing over him.
“Lucas, how are you feeling?” Evie asked softly, checking his vitals.
“Okay, Evie. Thanks to you… and my brother.” Lucas’s voice was barely a whisper, but his eyes glinted with triumph.
The nurses in the room were full of admiration. “Dr. Reed is so devoted to her fiancé. A true model.”