Chapter 2 - The Severed Ties
The next forty-eight hours were a blur of sterile lights and cold reality. My mother was arrested for aggravated battery and attempted extortion. My father was brought in for questioning regarding his role as an accomplice, and Connor—the golden boy—quickly sang like a canary the moment the police mentioned he could be charged as an accessory.
I lay in the ICU, my head bandaged, listening to the rhythmic hum of the machines. The hospital staff had become my only family. The nurses, who had seen my mother’s "loving" visits, were the ones who provided the most damning testimonies. They had seen her grab my arm, seen her mock my weakness, and heard her demand money while I struggled to breathe.
My father tried to visit, but I had him blacklisted. The hospital security team, acting on my explicit instructions and the evidence provided by the police, barred him from the building.
I was alone, but for the first time, I was also free.
The transplant coordinator came to see me on the third day. She didn't talk about money. She didn't talk about my family. She talked about a match. A donor had become available—a young man who had died in a tragic accident, leaving behind a legacy of life.
"The surgery is high risk, Maya," she said gently. "Given your current trauma and the head injury, we need to be absolutely certain you want to proceed."
May you like
I thought of the $250,000. I thought of the five years of living in shadows, feeding the black hole of my family’s greed. I looked at the dialysis tubes that had been my prison.
"Proceed," I said. "I have a lot of living to do."
