Chapter 2- Marry the man you hate

YASMIN

ONE YEAR LATER

The doctor removed his glasses and placed them on the table, and the small click echoed through the room like a gunshot.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "We've tried every available option. We still couldn't find a compatible donor."

"No!"

Rosalie shot up from her chair, hands slamming against the table.

"No, that's not possible! You said there was still hope! You said—"

"Mrs. Delacroix—"

"Don't tell me to calm down!" She was shaking, voice cracking. "My son is dying! Do you understand that? Noah is dying!"

"Rosalie—" I reached for her arm and she jerked away like I'd burned her.

"Don't touch me!" She snapped her eyes wild with dtears streaming down her face. "You don't know what it's like! You don't have to watch your own child slip away!"

I pulled my hand back. The words stung, but I didn't say anything.

"Enough!" My mother's voice cut through the room like a whip. "Sit down, Rosalie. Now."

Rosalie's lip trembled. She looked like a child who'd just been scolded, sinking slowly back into her chair.

My mother turned to the doctor, her voice suddenly calm and controlled.

"Doctor, is there truly nothing else? No other option?" She asked and he hesitated for a second before looking at me, then back at her.

"There is one possibility," he said carefully, "but it's... complicated."

"Explain."

"Statistically, a sibling donor offers one of the highest chances of a successful match. A child who shares Noah's biological family. A close genetic match."

"A sibling." My mother repeated the word slowly, like she was turning it over in her mouth first.

"Yes. There's no guarantee, but biologically, it's possible. It could give Noah another chance."

The room went quiet. I could hear the beeping of Noah's machines through the window, slow and steady, the sound of a life waiting to end.

Then my mother looked at me and my blood went cold.

"If my younger daughter had a baby," she said, "that baby could be a match."

The doctor blinked. "I mean theoretically, yes. But—"

"Thank you, Doctor." She was already standing. "You've been very helpful."

She didn't look at me on his way out, but I felt her eyes on me anyway, the whole time, until the door clicked shut behind him.

Then she turned to me.

"Yasmin. You'll have the baby." She said it casually, like she was asking me to pick up milk, and a bitter, disbelieving laugh came out of me before I could stop it.

"You can't be serious."

"I am completely serious."

"Mom, I just got a job offer in a real law firm. I've worked my whole life—"

"And what is your career compared to a child's life?"

"A child, Mom, you're asking me to have a baby! Just like that!"

"I'm asking you to save your nephew."

I was on my feet before I even registered standing, the chair scraping hard against the floor.

"Why is it always me? Why am I always the one expected to sacrifice?"

"Because Rosalie lost the ability to have more children because of you," my mother snapped. "She's been paying for your mistake every single day and now her son is dying."

"That accident wasn't my fault! I was young!" I yelled.

"Your nephew is dying and you're still making excuses." She scoffed, and my hands started shaking.

"Mom, I'm not married. I don't have—"

"You'll marry Damien Delacroix."

The name hit me like a slap and my stomach dropped clean through the floor.

"No." I was already shaking my head, my whole body gone cold. "No, absolutely not, anyone but him."

"Yasmin—"

"You don't understand." My voice climbed, panic bleeding into every word now. "I can't marry him. I won't. Not him, not after—"

I stopped myself right there.

"Why not him?" Her eyes narrowed, studying me like she'd caught the edge of something she didn't understand yet. "He's a good man. He's already agreed to protect Rosalie and Noah."

"I don't care what he's agreed to." My hands were shaking again. "There has to be someone else, anyone else."

"There is no one else." Mom snapped. "Julian's brother will perform his duty."

"And what about me? What about what I need?" My voice cracked on the last word.

"You need to save your nephew."

"I need to—" I stopped, throat tight, panic still crawling up through my chest. "You're asking me to marry a man I—"

I caught myself again.

"You're asking me to throw away my entire future. The career I worked for."

"And what about Rosalie's future? What about Noah's life?" she asked, and a scoff tore out of me before I could hold it back.

"I didn't ask for this!"

"No one asks for tragedy, Yasmin." Softer now. More dangerous for it. "But we all make sacrifices. Rosalie has made hers, she lost her husband. She's losing her son. What have you sacrificed?"

I opened my mouth but nothing came out.

I looked at Rosalie instead, she was staring at the floor, silent tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Mom, please don't force her." She whispered. "I don't want Yasmin to feel obligated."

"Rosalie—" I began.

"No." She shook her head. "It's fine. I've already lost Julian. I'm going to lose Noah, maybe that's just what I deserve."

She stood up unsteadily. "I shouldn't have asked you to come," she whispered, already walking toward the door, and my chest went tight.

"Rosalie, wait—"

"No." She paused there, back to me. "You go live your life, build your career. I'll just be here burying my son."

She opened the door.

"You can't be serious." My mother was up now too, chair scraping.

"Stop her, Yasmin."

"I'm not—"

"Stop her!"

I ran and caught Rosalie's arm.

"Please don't go, please," I begged, and she turned to me, her eyes red and broken.

"Why do you care? You're going to leave anyway."

"I just—" I stopped, chest heaving. "I just need time to think."

"Time?" My mother's voice sliced through. "Time is the one thing Noah doesn't have! Every day you waste is a day closer to his death. Do you understand that? Every second you hesitate, your nephew gets sicker."

"That's not fair—"

"Fair?" She laughed. "You want to talk about fair? Fair is your sister losing her husband. Fair is her son dying. Fair is her paying for your mistakes for years!"

I wanted to scream, I wanted to run but Instead I just stood there and took it.

"I can't marry Damien. I can't—" My voice cracked clean in half. "You don't understand what you're asking me to do."

"Then watch your nephew die." "Noah is going to die, Yasmin and it will be your fault."

I looked through the hospital room window. Noah was lying in his bed, so small, so pale. I remembered holding him the day he was born, those tiny fingers wrapped around mine, and now he was dying.

"Yasmin." Rosalie's voice was soft now. "I understand if you can't do this. Really, I do." A weak, broken smile appeared on her face. "Noah and I have each other and that's enough."

I opened my eyes and looked at her properly, her red-rimmed eyes, her fragile smile, as she turned and walked toward the door, and I just watched her go.

Then my mother's hand closed around my arm.

"Look at me." She threatened.

"You are going to marry Damien Delacroix. You are going to have his child and you are going to save your nephew." She whispered lowly. "Do you understand?"

"Mom—"

"You owe Rosalie this."

"I don't owe—"

The slap came out of nowhere.

My head snapped sideways, my cheek burning as I stumbled back falling onto the floor. I brought my hand up to my face, my skin stinging and eyes burning with unshed tears.

"Selfish." Mom whispered. "You are so selfish, Yasmin."

I looked at Rosalie who was still standing at the door with hand over her mouth, her eyes wide and shocked, she didn't defend me. Of course she didn't.

"You owe her," my mother whispered. "You owe her everything and if you walk away from this, I will never forgive you. Do you understand?"

I stared at her. "What about my life? What about my future?"

"What future?" She laughed, bitter and broken at the edges. "What future do you have? You're twenty-four years old, you're jobless with no husband or child."

"I have a career—"

"Then keep it." She stepped back, arms crossed. "Keep your career as you watch your nephew die. Live knowing you could have saved him, but you chose yourself instead."

I looked at Noah through the window, his small body under the white sheets, his peaceful face. Then at Rosalie's broken smile and her silent tears.

I closed my eyes as tears spilled out regardless

"Fine." I whispered. "I'll do it."

"Tell Damien I'll marry him."