My Last Gift to Her First Love

"After I'm gone, my body goes to my wife, Vivian Lane. She decides what happens to every single one of my organs."

The doctor hesitated. "Mr. Ashford, are you sure you don't want to keep anything... intact?"

Lucian Ashford didn't have the strength to answer. He just picked up the pen on the table and signed his name on a body donation consent form.

Lucian had a rare blood type, the kind people had once begged him to protect. Now, he was giving away everything he had to a woman who'd never loved him in return.

He had late stage eye cancer. It had already spread to his brain, and he had less than a month left. Fate didn't bend for anyone, not even for a man with his kind of money. He couldn't have even one more day, no matter what he paid.

It was just like Vivian's love. No matter how hard he tried, he'd never once managed to win a piece of her heart. Let this be his last gift to her, then.

"Dr. Monroe, I'll leave the paperwork to you. I need to get home and make my wife's dinner."

Looking at the fragile man in front of him, Edward Monroe felt a wave of pity he hadn't expected.

"Of course."

-

Night settled over Hawthorne Estate.

The marble dining table was set for two, a full spread of food laid out and already going cold. The grandfather clock in the living room struck eleven. Dinner had been reheated three times, but Vivian still hadn't come home.

Lucian sat at the table, staring blankly at the door.

They'd been married five years. He'd cooked for her for five years. He kept a notebook just for her, listing every food she liked and didn't like. She didn't like chives, was allergic to lily buds, and had a sweet tooth but only for chocolate. Of course, he'd learned it all by watching her in secret, or by asking her assistant when she wasn't around.

He cooked every single meal himself, yet she almost never came home to eat it.

Vivian couldn't stand him. She thought his cooking, like everything else about him, was worthless. In her eyes, whatever Lucian did came from some hidden motive. None of it meant anything.

Laughing at himself, Lucian popped a piece of meat in his mouth, then immediately frowned and spat it back out. It was too sweet. While cooking earlier, his vision had blurred, and he'd mistaken sugar for salt without realizing it.

His eyesight had been getting worse for two weeks straight. He could go blind at any moment.

The door clicked open. Lucian squinted and looked up.

Vivian was home. She wore a pale yellow blazer, her loose curls slightly messy, though somehow it only made her look more striking.

Lucian stood to greet her, his voice carrying a note of eagerness he couldn't quite hide. "You're back. Have you eaten? I made..."

Vivian barely glanced at the table. "Unlike you, I don't have the luxury of enjoying a nice meal while your own brother lies in a hospital bed dying."

Lucian froze mid-sentence. Quietly, he set her slippers down in front of her and pressed his lips together, saying nothing.

His brother, Caleb Ashford, was the man Vivian had loved for years. Caleb was in the hospital now with kidney failure. The doctors said that without a transplant, he might spend the rest of his life in that bed.

Vivian slipped into her slippers and fixed Lucian with a sharp stare. "I already asked you about giving Caleb a kidney. Have you thought it over?"

The entry light was turned up to its brightest setting. Vivian frowned without meaning to. Didn't the glare bother him? Then, she noticed how pale he looked. It caught her off guard to see him looking almost sickly.

Lucian's hands clenched into fists. He and Caleb were biological brothers. When their parents divorced, their mother had taken young Caleb with her, while Lucian had stayed with their father. It wasn't until Caleb turned eighteen, after their mother passed away, that he came back to the Ashford family on his own.

No one could deny Caleb had suffered while growing up with their mother. So, when he came home, both Lucian and their father gave him everything they could, until they discovered...

Now, Caleb needed one of his kidneys, and the request had come from the woman Lucian loved more than anything. It felt like a blade through his heart.

Lucian closed his eyes, then lifted his head again with a bright smile on his lips. "I've decided. I'll do it."

Vivian blinked, suspicion deep in her eyes. "Really?"

Lucian's smile widened. His hands clenched so tight his nails dug into his palms as he fought back a sudden stab of pain in his skull.

He gritted his teeth and firmly said, "Yes. In a month, I can give him a kidney."

A flicker of wild joy crossed Vivian's eyes, quickly replaced by anger she struggled to hold back. "Why wait a month? Why make him suffer a month longer?"

Lucian looked at her, pain flashing across his face for just a second. "No particular reason."

"Lucian, you..."

"When have I ever lied to you, all these years? If I said I'll do it, I will."

In the end, Vivian said nothing more. She turned and walked straight up to the study. As Lucian's eyes followed her graceful figure up the stairs, a bitter smile touched his colorless lips.

"Vivian, a month might feel like torture to him. But to me, that month is everything I have left."