Chapter 2

"Have the platform staff take the container straight to the train! Someone will be waiting at Lythoria Station to pick it up!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

As long as that heart got on the train, there was still a chance.

The police officer hesitated for a split second.

And in that brief window, Edward moved. He lunged forward without warning and kicked the bottom of the cooler.

With a thud, the cooler flew out of my arms, crashing onto the marble floor.

The lid popped open, and the preservation fluid splashed everywhere.

Through the frosty white mist, the donor heart—wrapped in its sterile bag—rolled out, flipped twice across the floor, and came to a stop against the base of a trash can.

"No!" I shrieked, throwing my entire body forward.

My knees slammed into the ground. The pain made my vision go black, but I didn't care.

I scooped the heart up with both hands. Its temperature was rising rapidly.

The preservation fluid was still leaking from the torn sterile bag.

"No… it can't be exposed to the air…"

Shaking violently, I desperately shielded the heart against my chest, wrapping it in my clothes as tears spilled down my face.

Edward stood nearby, clapping his hands together and shrugging. "See that, everyone? He's guarding it with his life. You really think that's anything legal?"

The camera flashes from the surrounding crowd kept blinking.

Four armed police officers stepped up. Two pinned my shoulders down while the other two pried my hands open.

"Drop the item! Put your hands behind your head!"

"You can't take it! Please, I beg you! That's a heart! It's a human heart!"

They pried my fingers away, one by one.

The donor heart was dropped into an evidence bag and sent off to the forensics lab.

I slumped onto the freezing floor, completely drained of all my strength.

Edward walked over and looked down at me with a smirk. He turned off his live stream, leaned down, and whispered in my ear, "Conner, that's what happens when you don't listen."

In the interrogation room, handcuffed to the metal chair, I explained desperately, "Officer! There are no drugs in that cooler! It really is a heart!

"Every single minute it spends at room temperature, the success rate of the transplant drops by 10%! The recipient is a 72-year-old man suffering from total organ failure. This is his absolute last chance!"

The interrogator remained expressionless. "Until the lab results are back, the evidence cannot be released."

"It's not drugs! It really isn't!"

I broke down, tears streaming uncontrollably down my face.

"Call our hospital! Call the hospital director, Ms. Carter! She can prove it! A whole surgical team of 17 people worked from 3:00 am until 8:00 am to harvest that heart!"

The interrogator looked at his colleague beside him and hesitated for a moment. "We can contact your hospital to verify, but until the results come back, you're staying right here."

I nodded frantically. "Fine! I won't leave! Just make the call right now!"

The interrogator pulled out his phone and handed it to me. "Dial it yourself. Put it on speaker."

With trembling hands, I dialed Carissa's number.

It rang twice before she picked up. Her voice was frantic on the other end. "Conner! Where the hell are you? Lythoria has called eight times! The recipient's blood pressure has dropped to 60!"

"Ms. Carter!" I sobbed into the phone. "I'm locked in an interrogation room at the train station! Edward reported me for drug smuggling! They knocked the heart out! They're testing it right now! You need to tell the police right now that it's a donor heart, not drugs!"

Carissa lost her temper, swearing loudly. "That bastard! Which room are you in? I'm starting a video call right now!"

The interrogator gave a brief nod, and I quickly switched it to a video call.

Carissa's face appeared on the screen. Behind her was the hospital director's office, with medical licenses and various awards hanging on the wall.

"Officer, I am Carissa Carter, director of Galdoria Hospital. Conner is the chief of our organ transplant department. We did perform a donor heart procurement surgery early this morning. I can provide all the surgical logs and the matching system ID numbers.

"That heart is completely legal! It was allocated through the Red Cross organ donation system, and it has a full set of ethical approvals."