My Two Hearts, Both Taken by You

"It's just one heart. Why are you being so selfish?

"You were born to keep your brother alive. That's the whole reason you exist."

As she spoke, Cindy Green had my hand in a death grip.

"But I want to live too," I said. "Without a heart, I'll die."

Her expression stiffened for a second, but she kept going. "You have two hearts. Give one up, and you'll still have one left. You'll survive.

"But Tristan's different. Without your heart, he dies."

She ignored my struggling and shoved me into the prep room.

"I only have one heart now," I said, desperate. "You've seen the test results yourself."

But Cindy wouldn't listen. "God knows what you pulled to get out of this. You probably bribed the lab techs too."

She was convinced that I'd paid off the technicians to falsify my results.

"That's not what happened, Cindy. I had surgery when I was a kid. I've already donated a heart."

"Enough, Hayden. All we're asking is for you to save your brother. Why are you fighting this so hard?"

"I'm not lying. My heart is inside you."

She didn't hear a single word I said and walked straight to my brother Tristan Foster's prep room. The other doctors stared. Then someone spoke up.

"Sweet-talking her at a time like this? That's disgusting."

"Your brother's life is on the line, and you're over here feeding his wife sappy lines."

Nobody knew that Cindy and I were married except our families. None of her colleagues had ever met me, and she'd personally handled all the arrangements for Tristan's hospitalization, everyone in the department assumed he was her husband.

Still, she never corrected them.

"Exactly. Instead of trying to save his own brother, he's hitting on his sister-in-law."

"That heart's wasted on someone like you."

I couldn't help myself. I wanted to tell them the truth. "Actually, I'm the one who's—"

Cindy came back out and grabbed my hand. "You're donating your heart today. Tristan's already in the operating room. You're next."

She pulled out a stack of paperwork. "I already signed everything. You're going straight to the table."

Inside the operating room, I saw Tristan. He looked so frail that everyone around him felt sorry for him.

"Don't worry," one of the doctors told him. "Your wife, Dr. Green, will make sure you live a long life."

Tristan didn't correct them. He just smiled weakly. "It's all my fault for making my younger brother sacrifice like this for me."

His words dripped with guilt, but the look he gave me was pure provocation. When the other doctors heard him, they decided that my brother was a saint, and I was heartless.

After comforting Tristan, Cindy forced me onto the operating table despite how hard I fought her. She then ordered the anesthesiologist to sedate me immediately.

Moments later, I stopped struggling.