Chapter 1

The antiseptic burned my nose when I woke for the third time. Cold. Sterile. Empty.

Dr. Brown stood at the foot of my bed, face set in stone. “Miss Smith, the dialysis is failing. Without a transplant, you don’t have much time.”

“How much?” My voice cracked.

He hesitated, the kind of silence that tastes like metal. “Three weeks. Maybe twenty-one days if we manage the symptoms. That’s all.”

Twenty-one days. Not a month, not a season. Just twenty-one sunsets. Every tick of the clock was a nail in my coffin. I imagined the seconds dripping like blood from an open wound.

I wanted to scream. To beg. To fight.

But the truth was crueler: part of me longed for it to end, for the countdown to reach zero so I wouldn’t have to see Henry and Susan’s names flashing on my phone ever again.

And yet… another part of me clung like a child, whispering: What if tomorrow there’s hope? What if I survive? The contradiction was unbearable. Hope and despair wrestled in my chest, until even breathing felt like betrayal.

I nodded, numb, and reached for my phone. I called Henry Colombo once. Twice. Three times. Voicemail.

A notification lit my screen. Instagram.

Susan’s story blinked up at me: two hands intertwined, her glossy nails resting on the watch I’d given Henry for his birthday. The caption read:

After years of waiting, my dream finally came true. Even if it’s a dream, let it last forever.

My chest twisted. My thumb slipped. I double-tapped. Liked.

Almost instantly, my phone buzzed.

“Olivia—listen,” Henry’s voice was raw. “It’s not what you think. She said if I stay with her for a month, she’ll donate. I’m doing this to save you. Just… hold on.”

For me? Or for the way she makes you feel alive while I’m fading?

Everyone knew our story.

Henry Colombo—the heir to one of the city’s most feared Mafia syndicates, a man who ruled with blood and iron—had once been gentle only with me.

He remembered the smallest cravings, drove across states for my favorite sweets, knelt beneath fireworks on my twentieth birthday and whispered, “After you graduate, you’ll be my wife.”

They all said Henry adored me beyond reason.

Until my kidneys failed.

He tore through favors and money like he was burning a city to the ground. He leaned on hospital directors, bribed coordinators, even tapped the kind of brokers you only call at midnight. When he finally found a match—Susan Miller—he wired half a million up front. She smiled and said yes.

Then came the delays.

First, a convenient fainting spell—low blood sugar. He sat by her bed for three days while I lay under fluorescent lights, a needle in my arm.

Then pre-op nightmares. He booked a therapist and held her hand until morning.

Then a sudden fever. He left me mid-dialysis to cool her forehead with towels.

When he pressed for a surgery date, she added stipulations: a private suite, a celebrity surgeon, no press, a diamond pendant “for luck.” She took the pendant. She canceled again.

In the end, she named her last price: “Be my boyfriend for a month—publicly. After that, I’ll donate.”

She posted our “trial love” to Instagram before the ink on their agreement was even dry.

It wasn’t charity. It was conquest. I wasn’t a patient to be saved. I was the audience to her victory.

I closed my eyes.

For days, I stared at the hospital ceiling, imagining my future shrinking into a row of numbers: 21, 20, 19… Every sunrise wasn’t life—it was subtraction. And in each subtraction, I lost not only time, but the memory of who Henry used to be.

“Cancel any pre-op on my side,” I said. “I won’t beg again.”

Her goal was never to save me. It was to see me break.

And I wouldn’t give her that satisfaction. Not anymore.

If this was the end, then I would face it with my eyes open. From this moment, my countdown wasn’t just to death—it was to freedom.

At sunset, I returned to the penthouse and found the truth waiting in plain sight.

Susan was curled against him on the leather sofa, feeding him fruit like she’d always lived there.

“Olivia!” Henry shot to his feet, desperation flashing through the guilt. “This is for you—everything I’m doing is for you.”

He pressed a velvet box into my hands. “Take it. Accept it. Then let me keep going. Just for a while.”

I didn’t open it. “No need. I’ve already agreed.”

His breath caught. “You… have?”

Susan rose, looping her arm through mine with sugar-sweet intimacy. “Then let’s enjoy this month, the three of us. If you see me close to Henry, don’t be jealous. It means nothing.”

“I won’t be jealous.” My voice didn’t waver.

Earlier that week, he’d already mixed up the simplest details. He bought the wrong brand of tea—Susan’s favorite, not mine.

When I mentioned my lactose intolerance, he blinked in confusion, swearing I’d always loved milk. The man who once knew me to the bone now recalled her cravings, not mine.

Relief flickered across his face. He disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a steaming bowl. “I made this myself. It’ll help you regain your strength.”

The scent was warm, familiar. I took one sip—and fire clawed down my throat.

I coughed, clutching my neck. “Cashews? You used cashews? I’m allergic—you forgot?”

His face drained. “I thought it was hazelnuts—”

“Henry,” Susan murmured, soft and claiming, “I’m the one allergic to hazelnuts.”

The world tilted. The pain wasn’t the allergy; it was the realization. The man who once memorized every detail of me now remembered only her.

Darkness swallowed the room.

When I woke again, he was at my bedside, eyes bloodshot, voice hoarse. “Olivia, I’m sorry. I’ll cancel everything. I’ll take care of you. Please—just forgive me.”

I turned my face away. My whisper cut cleaner than any blade.

“Don’t bother. You’re Susan’s boyfriend now. Remember her preferences, not mine.”

And then I ended it.

“From this moment on, Henry Colombo… my life has nothing to do with you.”