Chapter 4

Mom picked up the old phone she kept solely for contacting me and began typing a message.

Her expression was perfectly calm, as though she were asking me to give up some worthless trinket.

[Bruno, I think I’m dying. The doctor says that my kidneys are failing and that I need an urgent transplant. You’re my only hope. Please come to the hospital and save me.]

Message sent.

Mom casually tossed the phone aside and settled back against the sofa. She seemed completely certain that her plan would work.

“Just wait. Bruno has always put us first. He’ll call back immediately, crying and promising to help.”

Dad nodded. He was plucking a grape from the fruit bowl and feeding it to Penelope. “That’s true. He may be a little naive, but he genuinely loves us.”

I stared at that old phone, shaking with horror and disbelief.

A kidney?

Mom, did you know? Mine had failed long ago. When I was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago, the doctor told me that my organs were gradually shutting down.

Years of working around dangerously high levels of formaldehyde, pushing myself beyond exhaustion, and living with chronic malnutrition had destroyed my body.

There was not a single healthy organ left inside me.

Even if I wanted to give her a kidney, she could never use it.

I wanted to tell them. I wanted to explain.

I wanted to say, “Mom, it’s not that I don’t want to give you one. I just can’t give you mine anymore.”

I was dead. My body had gone cold and stiff at my desk.

I could not make a sound. All I could do was watch the minutes tick by.

Ten minutes passed, then half an hour.

The phone remained silent. Nothing happened.

Mom’s expression began to sour. Her smug confidence gradually gave way to offended anger.

“What is going on?” She frowned. “He always responds immediately when I ask for money. Why is he ignoring me today?”

“Maybe he is busy,” Dad suggested. “He is at work, after all.”

“What matters more, his job or his mother’s life?” Mom slammed her hand against the table.

“He clearly doesn’t want to donate! Sending us a little money every month is easy when it lets him pretend to be a devoted son.

“But the moment we ask him to make a real personal sacrifice, his true nature comes out. I knew it! People never really change. Deep down, he is still the same selfish, spoiled heir he always was!”

Mom rose and paced around the living room. She was growing angrier with every word.

“I was even prepared to let him live in luxury if he agreed to donate. Clearly, I gave him too much credit!

“That ungrateful brat has never truly cared about us. Honey, look at the wonderful son you kept defending! When it truly matters, a daughter is the one you can count on!”

Dad’s expression darkened as well. He looked deeply disappointed, as though I were a lost cause.

“That boy... He has broken my heart. Did all the effort we put into teaching him amount to nothing? He won’t even give his mother one kidney. How could we ever trust someone so ungrateful to look after Penelope?”

I stared at them.

They were passing judgment on me as though I had committed some unforgivable sin just because they had not received an immediate reply.

In their eyes, ten years of sacrifice, my battered hands, and everything I had endured for them had not earned me even half an hour of patience.

They did not want a living, breathing son. They wanted an obedient spare part, always on call and ready to be sacrificed.

Just then, the old phone finally rang.

Its shrill ringtone echoed through the luxurious apartment.

Mom snorted. “It seems he has finally decided to call back! Let’s hear what excuse he has.”

She deliberately let it ring for several seconds before answering at a leisurely pace and putting the call on speaker.

She cleared her throat, ready to unleash all the lectures and accusations she had prepared.

“Hello? Bruno, so you finally decided to call back. Do you have any idea…”

The voice on the other end was not my usual meek reply.

It belonged to an unfamiliar man. It was trembling.

“Hello? Am I speaking to a member of Bruno Lawson’s family? I’m the HR manager at his company. I... I’m afraid I have terrible news.

“Bruno collapsed at his desk and began coughing up blood. He didn’t make it. Please come to the hospital as soon as possible.”