Chapter 2

Vivian went blind the night before our wedding.

Her loss of sight was caused by disease. The doctors told us it was irreversible.

One blow followed another until she was on the edge of breaking. Proud, beautiful Vivian, whose acting career had only just begun, suddenly couldn't see the world she had worked so hard to conquer. The illness wore her down, and there were days when she spoke as if she didn't want to live anymore.

So I knocked on her doctor's door and asked the question that changed my life.

"Can I donate my corneas to the woman I love?"

The rustle of a sleeve brought me back to the hospital waiting area.

Vivian had caught Blake's arm before he could send the money. She patted his hand in reassurance.

"Blake, don't. I've already given him a hundred and twenty thousand. That's more than enough to buy his whole miserable life."

Hearing her speak to him so intimately hurt worse than the pain spreading from my stomach into my chest.

So much for the extra money.

I didn't want to hear another word. I found my cane, tapped the floor a few times, and tried to move somewhere quieter to wait for the doctor.

Crack.

Someone planted a foot on my cane and snapped it clean in two.

Without it, I lost my balance as I stood and fell hard onto the hospital floor. My sunglasses flew off. I couldn't even tell where they'd landed.

"Watch where you're going, Mr. Sloane," Blake said.

Vivian was at my side almost immediately. Instinctively, she helped me sit up. With my sunglasses gone, my vacant, unfocused eyes were exposed.

She frowned, confused. Something seemed to dawn on her. "Your eyes..."

Blake heard the change in her voice. He wasn't about to let me have her attention.

"Oh, come on, Ryan. Have you no dignity?" he snapped. "Vivian used to be blind, so now you're copying her to get sympathy and more money? I came in for a stomach problem and suddenly here you are, following us around. If you're really so concerned about her, why did you abandon her on your wedding day?"

His words tore open the old wound between Vivian and me.

Whatever concern she'd shown disappeared from her voice. She pulled me the rest of the way to my feet and released my arm.

"Come on, Blake. We have nothing to say to him. Some people are blind in more ways than one. No amount of money will fix that."

Their footsteps retreated together.

The pain in my stomach sharpened until I couldn't remain standing. I collapsed onto a chair outside the examination rooms, suddenly certain my illness had gotten worse.

I didn't even have the strength to call for help.

The last sounds I heard before the darkness swallowed me were strangers shouting.

"Help! He's passed out!"

"Call the ER. Somebody bring a stretcher!"

When I woke, I recognized my attending physician's furious voice before he said my name.

"Ryan, how many times have I told you? You cannot put yourself through this kind of stress. Your stomach can't take it. You need rest."

Dr. Graham Ellis sounded as though he wanted to shake some sense into me. "You've been doing reasonably well until now. What happened today? Keep this up and you won't even need that surgery. No surgeon in the world will be able to save you."

I could only offer him an embarrassed smile.

After another long sigh and strict instructions to rest, he left me alone.