Chapter 1

Sophie Ryder held a tray of fresh organs in her trembling hands—my organs.

Inside my abdomen, only my intestines remained. Everything else had been extracted.

"Once I transplant these into Adrian, he'll recover," Sophie said, her face lighting up with a smile. "He'll be healthy and live a long life."

Even though my heart had been stolen, the pain rippled through me anyway. I understood then that I was experiencing a shared agony with my original body—the one I'd been cloned from.

"You owe Adrian this much for stabbing him and rupturing his kidney. His health has never recovered since that day."

The truth was simpler: when my original self had discovered Adrian Corell's real intentions toward Sophie, he'd dragged Adrian out and beaten him to stop him from hurting her. Adrian had pulled a knife. My original body had fought back in self-defense and accidentally stabbed him.

I couldn't hold back. A tear slipped down my cheek, and the pain in my chest intensified.

"I... it hurts so much."

The words came out involuntarily.

Sophie's eyes widened slightly. She glanced at Adrian, who was watching from the corner of the room.

Adrian spoke up suddenly. "Sophie, didn't he usually not feel pain when organs were taken out? Why this time? Could it be... he doesn't want to give me organs, so he's faking it?"

Sophie's face darkened with anger.

"Marcus, listen to me. This is payment for what you did to Adrian. Letting you give him a few organs is getting off easy."

I couldn't help but laugh bitterly. In the five years since I'd been created, I'd lost count of how many times Sophie had harvested my organs. At first, she'd hesitated, afraid to cut into me without anesthesia. But by now, she'd become an expert at it. Eventually, she stopped giving me painkillers altogether—just cut me open and took what she wanted, no questions asked.

She claimed it was to make money, to improve our lives. But every cent of those earnings had become assets for her and Adrian. I was nothing but a tool they could discard whenever they pleased.

After Adrian's organ transplant, my abdomen hadn't fully healed yet. My new organs hadn't fully integrated. The pain was overwhelming, and I was on the verge of losing consciousness.

Sophie dumped a bucket of ice water over me.

"Don't think you can play the victim to win my sympathy. You recovered instantly every other time—why not now? You're faking it."

She grabbed my wound roughly.

"Get better already. I need your organs for Adrian's daughter too. I want her to be healthier and stronger. Once I'm done with her, I'll let you go."

My entire body went cold. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"Do you not care about my feelings at all?" I asked on behalf of my original self, the man she'd claimed to love, the one who'd sacrificed so much for her.

Sophie's eyes darted away. "You owe Adrian everything anyway. And besides, you'll recover no matter what happens."

I felt for my original self. After all he'd done for Sophie, this was how she repaid him.

Once Adrian had been stabbed, Sophie had immediately abandoned my original body to rush Adrian to the hospital. She never noticed that my original self had been injured too. The first thing he'd thought of wasn't going to a hospital for himself—even as he was dying, all he could think about was her.