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Semua Bab Hope Mired in Regret: Bab 1 - Bab 8

8 Bab

Chapter 1

My rented room was two floors underground. The place had the smell of mold all year and only had one window barely big enough to be worthy of the name. I had to stand on my tiptoes to see the concrete ground outside.I looked at myself in the mirror. My face was deathly pale. I felt a warm trickle under my nose. I was bleeding again.I tilted my head back expertly and grabbed some tissues to shove tightly into my nostrils.This was my fourth nosebleed of the day. According to the doctor, the prognosis for acute promyelocytic leukemia was very good if it was treated intensively. However, it took a lot of money.Like, a LOT of money.But my older sister, Rachelle, also needed money for her uremia. A new kidney would cost 500 thousand dollars, and there were still the fees for the treatments to make sure she did not reject the new organ. The family had long ago been bled dry. Our old home had been sold. Dad worked hard labor in construction, while Jonah Anders, my fiance, w

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Chapter 2

My rented room was only five blocks from an organ donation center. It was a distance that I was well acquainted with. If I were quick enough, I could haul myself over quickly. My kidney would still be warm when it was transplanted into Rachelle’s body. A piercing ache suddenly lanced through my tummy. It felt like a knife had punctured through it. It hurt so much that I rolled off my bed and landed on the floor. My forehead was covered in sweat. There were painkillers in my drawer, but I could not take them. Most painkillers damaged the kidneys, and I could not give Rachelle a damaged kidney.“Come on, Ryleigh. Just smile and bear it. It’ll be over soon.”I bit the corner of my blanket and curled up into a ball in the dark. The screen of my phone suddenly lit up with a notification. Rachelle had posted a photo on social media. It was a picture of her arm taken during dialysis. Her skin was marred with needle scars. The caption read:[Blood may be thicker than wat

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Chapter 3

Outside, Dad was still kicking the door, but Jonah pulled him back.“We should go! It’s pointless to beg someone like that. I’m determined to save Rachelle even if I have to sell my blood plasma or take a loan from a loan shark.”Their footsteps receded.I leaned into the door and slid down to the floor. The cement was cold under me as I finally dared to let out my cough. I coughed up blood, and it stained the money in my hands. This was money Jonah had worked hard for over three years to save so that we could have a nice wedding. I carefully cleaned the blood from the money and shoved it all into a metal box under my pillow. There was more than 40 thousand dollars in there that I had saved up myself. It was all the money I had made in the past few years. I had saved and scrimped by going as far as to sell my own hair.But it was far from enough. ‘I’m sorry, Rachelle. I can’t even make 500 thousand dollars that you desperately need,’ I thought.I looked at my bloody ha

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Chapter 4

The second I hit the button to end the recording, I slumped onto the table. My tears messed up the makeup on my face. I saved the video and fiddled with the settings for it to send at a set time. I set it so that it would be sent after three days. If I was dead by then, this video would be my final testament. If I was still alive…No, I would not make it until then. I could feel my life ebbing from my body bit by bit. My savings in the metal box and Jonah’s 100 thousand dollars totaled up to 143 thousand dollars. I took out a piece of paper and wrote the number of Rachelle’s attending doctor on it.I stuck the slip of paper to the back of my phone. After doing all that, I went back to lie down on my bed and clutched the plush teddy Jonah had given me. The teddy was very old, and some of its stuffing was coming out. It was raggedy and barely worth anything, just like me. However, my kidney had to be perfect. I needed to make sure that it would be delivered into

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Chapter 5

The emergency room was a mess. My clothes were cut open. My bruise-ridden body was on display. “Dilated pupils, no reflection!”“Heart’s stopped. Prepare the defibrillator!”“What happened to her? She’s bruised all over!”The doctor was yelling while the nurses ran about. But I could not hear any of that anymore. I felt like my soul was floating above my body, watching these medical professionals trying their best to save a dying corpse. “Doctor, look! She has something in her hand!”A nurse pried my fingers open and found the waterproof bag. The doctor took out the paper and froze. In an instant, the emergency room fell into silence. The waterproof bag held my organ donation form and a wrinkled letter with my final words. The letter was only a few sentences long: [My name is Ryleigh Trenton. I have acute promyelocytic leukemia. Do not resuscitate. Please give my kidney to Rachelle Trenton in bed 15 in the nephrology ward. Please…]The attending doctor was a midd

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Chapter 6

It didn’t matter how much Jonah rubbed my hand to warm it; the bruises remained on my pale skin.The doctor coldly put a report in front of them. “This is the autopsy report. She’s been sick for at least three months. During these three months, she was severely malnourished. All she had in her stomach was cheap vitamin pills and nothing else. “Her bloodstream is made up mostly of immature white blood cells. Without treatment, the late stage of this illness causes agonizing pain. How did she handle it?”The doctor’s questions were like painful blows landing on Dad and Jonah. Jonah looked at the report and suddenly slapped himself. He did it again. The blows rang loudly.“I’m a wretch! I’m such a wretch!”He recalled the day he had stood at my door as I asked him for money. He realized I had been in pain then. But he still yelled at me and called me names. He had even thrown money in my face. “I was wrong, Ryleigh! I’ve been wrong all this time!”Jonah held my icy foot and

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Chapter 7

There was a metal box under the pillow.When Jonah opened the box, he found banknotes folded neatly inside. There was at least 140 thousand dollars in there. It included the 100 thousand dollars he had thrown at me and also one thousand dollars that I had made by selling my hair. There were also many wrinkled single notes. On the very top was a note that read: [Rachelle, I know that you need 500 thousand dollars for your transplant surgery. I’m sorry I could only save 143 thousand dollars. I wanted to save more, but I didn’t have enough time. For the rest, I hope I can protect you and help you win the lottery from the other side.[I’m sorry for not seeing you. I’m too ugly now, and I didn’t want to scare you. And Jonah, I don’t blame you for leaving me. Be good to Rachelle. She’s more suited to be your wife than I am.]Jonah felt as though someone had ripped out a piece of himself. “How could you be so silly, Ryleigh?”He clutched the metal box to his chest and curled up in

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Chapter 8

The smile froze on Rachelle’s face. “What did you say?” She stared at the nurse. “What leukemia? Where’s my sister?”The nurse was stunned. She looked at the despairing faces by the bed and realized she had spoken out of turn.“I, uh… Nothing…”“Jonah, tell me! Tell me what happened!” Rachelle suddenly shrieked and reached out to grab Jonah by the collar. “Who gave me the kidney? Was it Ryleigh?”Jonah could not keep the ruse up any longer. He fell to the floor and cried soundlessly. “It was Ryleigh! She’s gone… She stayed in an underground room for three months, in pain and alone, to give you that kidney.”Rachelle froze. After a few seconds, she let out a heart-wrenching cry. “No! I don’t believe it!”She ripped the bandage away as though she wanted to claw the kidney out. “Take it out! I don’t want it! This belongs to Ryleigh! Why am I still alive? I don’t want to live if Ryleigh has to die! Ryleigh! Ryleigh, where are you? I was wrong! I shouldn’t have let you lea

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