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CHAPTER 80

Author: ZELIA
last update publish date: 2026-06-08 00:44:34

THE FUTURE THEY CHOOSE

Two weeks after Harvard, we made a decision.

We were having one of those rare mornings where everyone was home, no one had to be anywhere, and we could just be. Rose reading on the couch. Emma coloring at the kitchen table. Dominic making coffee. Me checking emails.

Normal. Beautifully, wonderfully normal.

"I want another baby," I said suddenly.

Dominic turned around. "What?"

"Another baby. I want, we talked about it before everything fell apart. Before the threats and th
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  • HE SOLD MY HEART AT AUCTION    CHAPTER 98

    THE NEWS THAT CHANGES PLANSDay ten, Chance was feeding well, Growing, Gaining weight. Twelve ounces heavier than birth. Still tiny, five pounds fourteen ounces, but growing. Thriving. Proving that, that he could do this. Could be a baby. Could, could live."We're thinking about discharge," Dr. Chen said during rounds. Casually. Like he wasn't, wasn't saying the most important words I'd heard since "he's alive.""Discharge? Home? We can take him home?""Not yet. But soon. If he continues improving. If he maintains his weight gain. If he shows us he can, can handle being a regular baby. Then yes. In a week. Maybe two. You could take him home."Home. Chance coming home. Our son in our house instead of the hospital. In his nursery instead of the NICU. With us instead of, instead of nurses and monitors and medical equipment. Home. Actually home."But his heart," I said. "The shunt. It's temporary. He'll need the full repair eventually. How can we, how can we take him home when he's not fu

  • HE SOLD MY HEART AT AUCTION    CHAPTER 97

    THE MOMENT EVERYTHING SHIFTSDay seven. One week old. Chance was off oxygen completely. Breathing room air. Heart functioning well enough with the shunt. Stable. Actually, genuinely stable. Not crisis-to-crisis stable. But, but real stable. Improving stable. Moving-forward stable."We're going to try feeding," the nurse said. "Just a few milliliters. See if he can tolerate it. See if his body can handle, handle being a regular baby. Not just a surgery patient. An actual baby who needs milk."Feeding. Such a normal thing. Such a basic thing all babies did. But for Chance, for Chance it was huge. Monumental. Proof that he was, was transitioning. From crisis to recovery. From survival to, to living. From patient to baby.They gave him five milliliters. Through a feeding tube. Through his nose. Not nursing yet. Not bottle yet. Just nutrition. Just proving his stomach worked. His intestines worked. His body could handle, could handle more than just breathing. More than just existing. Could

  • HE SOLD MY HEART AT AUCTION    CHAPTER 96

    THE COMPLICATION THEY DIDN'T EXPECTDay four. Chance was supposed to be extubated. Supposed to breathe on his own. Supposed to be, supposed to be progressing. Moving forward. Getting better.Instead, his oxygen saturations dropped at three AM.We got the call in our hospital room. The NICU night nurse. Voice calm but urgent. "Chance's saturations are dropping. We're increasing oxygen support. Dr. Chen is on his way. You should come. Now."We ran. Down hallways. Through doors. Into the NICU where Chance's isolette was surrounded by people. Nurses. Residents. Respiratory therapists. Everyone working. Everyone focused. Everyone trying to figure out, figure out why our son suddenly couldn't breathe well enough. Why his oxygen levels were dropping. Why, why everything was going wrong after surgery had gone right."What's happening?" I asked. Demanded. Terrified. "He was fine last night. He was stable. What's happening?"Dr. Chen appeared. Scrubs on. Hair disheveled. Obviously pulled from s

  • HE SOLD MY HEART AT AUCTION    CHAPTER 95

    THE RECOVERY THAT TESTS THEMThe first week after surgery was harder than surgery itself.Chance struggled. Struggled to breathe without ventilator. Struggled to maintain stable blood pressure. Struggled to, to recover from what they'd done to save him. To heal from trauma. To, to be okay despite everything."This is normal," the PICU doctors kept saying. "Post-surgical complications. Expected. Manageable. He's, he's doing well considering. Considering how small he is. How early. How, how risky surgery was. He's doing well."But it didn't feel like doing well. Felt like, like barely surviving. Like hanging on by threads. Like, like every day we weren't sure if he'd make it through. If complications would arise. If, if infection would set in. If his heart would fail despite repair. If, if everything they'd done would be undone by recovery. By his body rejecting intervention. By, by anything and everything that could go wrong.I lived at the hospital. Slept in a chair next to his bed. H

  • HE SOLD MY HEART AT AUCTION    CHAPTER 94

    THE WAIT THAT BREAKS THEMHour one: We sat. Didn't talk. Didn't move. Just, just sat. Holding hands. Breathing. Existing. Waiting for updates that wouldn't come for hours yet.Hour two: I started crying. Couldn't help it. Just, just cried. Silently. Tears streaming. Body shaking. Grieving something that might not even happen. Grieving the possibility. The chance that, that he wouldn't make it. That surgery wouldn't work. That, that we'd lose him.Dominic held me. Didn't tell me to stop. Didn't try to fix it. Just, just held me while I cried. While I, while I let out all the fear I'd been holding for weeks. Months. Since we found out about his heart. All of it. Pouring out. Finally. Completely.Hour three: A nurse came with an update. "Surgery is progressing. They've opened his chest. They're assessing the heart. Everything looks, complicated but manageable. Dr. Chen will update you when there's more to report."Complicated but manageable. What did that mean? Was he okay? Was he dying?

  • HE SOLD MY HEART AT AUCTION    CHAPTER 93

    THE MORNING OF SURGERYThey came for him at six AM.Nurses. Surgical team. People who'd wheel him away. Take him from me. Take him to—to operating rooms and surgeons and uncertainty."Do you want to walk with him?" Amy asked. "To the surgical floor? Some parents find it—find it helps. Being with them as long as possible. Right up until—until they have to let go.""Yes. I want—I want to stay with him. As long as I can. Until—until I have to give him up."Dominic was already there. Had stayed overnight. Both of us refusing to leave. Refusing to waste—to waste these last hours sleeping. These last hours when Chance was still ours. Still safe. Still—still not yet in danger beyond the danger he was already in.They unhooked monitors. Transferred him to a transport isolette. So many wires. So many tubes. So much—so much medical intervention keeping him alive. Keeping him—keeping him breathing. Fighting. Existing.And we walked. Down corridors. Past rooms. Past other families dealing with th

  • HE SOLD MY HEART AT AUCTION    CHAPTER 75

    THE MOMENT EVERYTHING SHIFTSAgent Martinez called three days later with news."We caught him. The person sending the threats. The emails. All of it.""Who?""His name is Robert Morrison. Tyler's uncle. He was part of the family that went to prison for the fake documents. He was released six months

  • HE SOLD MY HEART AT AUCTION    CHAPTER 73

    THE ATTACK THAT COMESIt happened three weeks later.I was leaving an event in Philadelphia. Walking to my car with security. Normal routine. Normal precautions. Normal everything.Except the man who appeared out of nowhere with a knife."You ruined my life!" he screamed. "My wife left me because o

  • HE SOLD MY HEART AT AUCTION    CHAPTER 72

    THE DECISION SHE MAKESI didn't go to my next speaking engagement.Called the Survivor's Network. Told them I needed time. Told them about the threats. Told them I was scared and not sure I could keep doing this.Maria understood. "Take whatever time you need. Your safety comes first. Always.""But

  • HE SOLD MY HEART AT AUCTION    CHAPTER 71

    THE THREAT THAT RETURNSThe threatening email arrived on a Tuesday morning while I was making breakfast.*You should have stayed quiet.*I almost deleted it. Almost. But something made me click.*Nora Caldwell. You think you're a hero. You think speaking out makes you brave. But you're destroying f

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