Chapter 3

Inside Zachary's body was one of my kidneys, but he didn't know that. Dr. Shaw once suggested telling him, especially after I began to suffer complications from the surgery.

"Why not just tell him? He has everything now. If nothing else, you could save your own life."

"Dr. Shaw, his father died saving me." With a sigh, I finally told him the truth behind the tangled mess that bound Zachary and me together.

His mother had passed away early. Zachary was raised by his father, who was a firefighter. He was kind, strong, and full of honor.

When I was 14, my home caught fire. My parents threw themselves over me, shielding me from the flames.

Zachary's father came charging in through the inferno and pulled me out. However, he never made it back out himself.

I owed Zachary a life. So, when we found out I was a matching donor, I signed the donation form without hesitation.

He was just like his father, who was a man of dignity and honor. If I had told him the truth, he would never have accepted my kidney.

Hence, I chose the ugliest excuse I could think of and broke up with him. I told him I'd found a wealthy man who was willing to be my sugar daddy, someone who would give me the life of luxury I'd always dreamed of.

"No… Shan, you're not that kind of person."

"I am exactly that kind of person!" To hide the pain twisting my face, I turned away from him. On the windowsill, a sunflower had withered. I wasn't even sure when it had died.

"Zachary, people change. I'm tired of your weak body. I'm tired of our endless grind. When you got that critical diagnosis the other month, I realized I can't keep living in fear of losing you."

"I can live with the breakup, but how could you… for money…" he said in a hoarse voice.

"Why not?" I snapped. "Wasn't all that effort, all those sleepless nights—wasn't it all for a shot at a better life?

"Well, I made it. Overnight. You should be happy for me." My voice was already shaking by the time I got to the end of the sentence.

I continued, "This is it, Zachary. Goodbye. Let's never see each other again."

The bus arrival announcement pulled me out of my brooding.

I returned to my shared apartment. It was a small room with terrible insulation—too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. Even using a high-powered electric cooker would cause a power outage.

Still, my roommate was kind. She knew I was sick and looked out for me as best as she could.

"Shannon, that woman on TV… that wasn't you, right?"

I nodded and gave Wendy Smith a faint smile. "Yeah, that was me. The gold-digger everyone's talking about. You should probably—"

"What are you saying? You're the one who took me in after my dad kicked me out. You fed and clothed me. You're the reason I got back on my feet!

"There's no way you're that kind of person. This has to be a misunderstanding!"

Her words blurred the edges of my vision. To be honest, I hadn't cried much since leaving Zachary.

With a body like mine, just staying alive already took everything I had. I just didn't have the spare energy left for tears.

But now, for some reason, the injustice stung more than I expected. Before I could let more than a few tears fall, my phone rang.

It was the manager from my part-time job. Because my face and identity were exposed, the store decided to let me go, and I lost my only source of income.

I slumped into a chair, closed my eyes, and let the silence settle in. The darkness inside me was slow and suffocating, slowly eating away at my soul.

"Shannon, don't worry," Wendy said, clutching my hand tightly. "My boss at my workplace is pretty nice. I'll talk to him for you."

"Okay. Thank you."

I nodded and looked out of the window, letting my eyes rest on the cloudless, brilliant blue sky. It was such a beautiful day.