Chapter 1

The hospital room was a chorus of celebration over the miracle match.

My dad stood off to the side, wiping away theatrical tears. "Thank goodness we finally tracked him down. Otherwise, what would have happened to my boy?"

My wife, Tessa Laurent, gripped my half-brother Levi Cole's hand, tears of relief streaming down her face.

"Levi, you're finally going to get your health back," she whispered. "You'll never have to be trapped in this hospital bed again."

Levi let out a soft hum of agreement, shooting me a sharp, mocking look from across the room.

That was the exact moment I finally found my voice.

"I'm not doing it."

Tessa whipped her head up, stunned.

After carefully smoothing down Levi's blanket, she marched right over to me.

Her hand came down hard across my face, the blow landing with a vicious crack.

My left cheek burned with blinding agony, and the metallic taste of blood flooded my mouth.

Tessa glared down at me, her voice dropping into a dangerous, icy hiss.

"Say that again. I dare you."

I kept my gaze locked downward, every single word heavy and deliberate.

"I said, I’m not donating my kidney to some pathetic piece of trash."

That single sentence shattered whatever patience she had left.

She gave a subtle flick of her eyes.

Instantly, bodyguards lunged forward, their iron grips slamming onto my shoulders and forcing me violently to the floor.

The brutal impact of my knees hitting the hard tile sent shockwaves of pain through my entire body.

I clenched my jaw so hard my teeth ached, refusing to let out a single groan.

Tessa loomed over me like a predator, her gaze as cold as a blade.

She crouched down, clamped her fingers tightly around my jaw, and forced my face up to meet her eyes.

"Aiden, do you honestly think you have any right to say no to me?

"If I hadn't bothered to search for you, you'd still be rotting away in some miserable fishing village!

"Levi is your brother! It's just a single kidney. Why are you being so selfish?"

Hearing her throw every insult at me while fiercely defending Levi made my chest tighten with a suffocating, stinging pain.

Tessa knew damn well that my mother had died because of the mistress my father kept on the side and her illegitimate child.

Yet here she was, trying to force me to save the child of the very woman who destroyed my mother.

I refused to beg.

"My mom only had me," I spat out. "What kind of brother is Levi to me?"

Before the echo could fade, another sharp crack split the air.

This time, it was my dad's hand.

He looked at me with disgust. "How can you even say something like that to Levi?

"Do you have any idea how many shots he's had to take these past few months? How many medications has he choked down?

"Are you really going to let Levi die just to honor some dead woman?"

Tessa nodded solemnly, her tone turning even more glacial.

"It looks like you didn't suffer enough in that village," she said.

She spun around, fixing her eyes on the guards waiting by the door.