I Gave Him a Kidney, He Asked for Another

Rain hit the Manhattan pavement like shattered glass. I pulled my wet coat tighter around my shoulders. Dusk was settling over the city, turning the sky a bruised, heavy purple. I stepped off the curb and into the crosswalk.

Then came the roar of an engine.

I turned my head. Twin headlights blinded me through the downpour. The car wasn't slowing down. It was accelerating, tires hissing violently against the wet asphalt.

The impact threw me into the air.

My body hit the ground with a sickening crack. Pain exploded in my chest, hot and sharp. My breath vanished from my lungs. I tasted copper on my tongue.

Through the blur of rain and agony, I saw the driver’s door swing open. A pair of designer heels stepped into a muddy puddle. Shelby Ross.

Kasen’s first love. The woman who had recently returned from London to take back everything she thought was hers.

She didn't look horrified. As she walked toward me, her eyes were cold and calculating. But as a small crowd began to gather on the sidewalk, her face changed instantly. Her hands flew to her mouth. She dropped to her knees beside me, careful not to ruin her silk skirt in the wet grime.

"Oh my god! Someone help!" Shelby screamed. Her voice trembled perfectly. "I didn't see her! The rain... she just stepped right out!"

She pulled out her phone and dialed 911. She was already spinning the story. A tragic, unavoidable accident. I tried to speak, to tell them she sped up on purpose, but my fractured ribs ground together. Darkness swallowed me whole.

I woke up to the sharp smell of bleach and the steady beep of a heart monitor. My body felt like lead, wrapped tightly in bandages. Every shallow breath was a knife twisting in my side.

The door to my hospital room was cracked open. A slice of harsh fluorescent light spilled across the linoleum floor.

Then, I heard his voice. Kasen Young.

The man I had loved silently for eight years. The man I had secretly given a kidney to when he was dying.

"The doctors say she’s a match," Kasen said. His tone was flat. Clinical. "I know she’s stubborn. But I’ll handle it."

A pause. He was on his phone in the hallway.

"I have the ring," he continued. "I’ll offer her the marriage. It’s what she’s always wanted. Once she says yes, we get her to sign the consent forms for Shelby’s transplant. She’ll do it."

I lay perfectly still. The monitor beside me didn't spike. My heart didn't race. Instead, something deep inside my chest just stopped. It went completely, permanently quiet.

He wasn't here to see if I survived the crash. He wasn't here to hold my hand. He was here to harvest my remaining kidney for the woman who had just run me over.

The door pushed open. Kasen walked in.

He wore a tailored charcoal suit, looking flawless and untouched by the storm outside. His jaw was set tight. He didn't look at the purple bruises blooming across my cheek. He didn't look at the IV tubes taped to my arm.

He walked straight to my bedside table. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small, robin’s-egg blue box. A Tiffany ring box.

He set it down next to my plastic water cup. It made a soft click.

"You're awake," he said. It wasn't a question.

"Yes," I rasped. My throat felt like dry sandpaper.

He stood tall, towering over my bed. He looked down at me like a businessman closing a difficult merger. "Let’s not waste time, Eden. Shelby’s condition is worsening. Her kidneys are failing. The doctors ran your bloodwork when they brought you in. You’re a viable donor."

I stared at him. I looked for the reckless sixteen-year-old boy who had fought off a group of men in a Brooklyn alley to save me. That boy was dead. This man was a stranger.

"I’m offering you a deal," Kasen said, his voice smooth and hard. He tapped the top of the Tiffany box with his index finger. "Marry me. You’ll be my wife. You’ll have the title, the security, everything you’ve been waiting around for. In exchange, you give Shelby your kidney."

He finally met my eyes. "It’s a fair trade. We all get what we want."

My side throbbed. Internal bleeding, the ER nurse had said before I passed out. My body was broken. But my mind had never been clearer.

"You want me to cut myself open," I said slowly. "For her."

Kasen frowned. His patience was already wearing thin. "She’s dying, Eden. Don't be selfish."

Selfish.

The word hung in the sterile air. I thought about the long surgical scar hidden beneath my hospital gown, resting on my lower back. The piece of my own body I had already given him.

I looked at the blue box. Then I looked back at Kasen.