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.

I stared at the little blue box. The velvet looked soft. It was the exact box I used to dream about. For years, I imagined how Kasen might give it to me. Now, sitting next to my plastic water cup, it just looked like a trap.

Kasen stood there, waiting. His tailored suit was perfectly dry. His jaw was tight. He expected me to cry. He expected me to nod, to accept the crumbs he was throwing at me, and say yes.

"Selfish," I repeated. The word tasted like ash in my dry mouth.

I reached out. My arm trembled. The tape from the IV line pulled at my skin. My fingers brushed the edge of the Tiffany box.

"Careful," Kasen warned softly. "Don't drop it."

I looked up at him. "I already gave you a kidney, Kasen."

His brow furrowed. He let out a short, dismissive breath. "What are you talking about?"

"Eight years ago. When your kidneys failed. The anonymous donor." I kept my voice low. I didn't yell. I didn't have the breath for it anyway, not with my fractured ribs. "That was me."

Kasen froze. The annoyance in his eyes flickered into something else. Confusion. "Don't be ridiculous, Eden. Shelby’s mother donated that kidney. We all know that."

"Check the hospital records," I said flatly. "Look for the sealed file from New York Presbyterian. Then look at the scar on my lower back."

His face lost a fraction of its color. His hands, resting by his sides, twitched. "You're lying. You're just saying this to get out of helping Shelby. She is dying."

"I loved you," I said. It was the first time I had ever said it aloud to him. And it was in the past tense. "I loved you so much I let them cut me open for you. I walked around in pain for months. And now you want my last kidney. For the woman who just deliberately ran me over."

"Eden—"

I flicked my fingers. The blue box slid off the edge of the table. It hit the linoleum floor with a sharp clatter. The lid popped open. A heavy diamond ring spilled out, catching the harsh fluorescent light.

We both looked at it. It lay there, glittering uselessly next to Kasen’s polished leather shoe.

"We're done," I said. "Get out."

Kasen stared at the ring, then back at me. A muscle feathered in his jaw. His composure was slipping. "Eden, stop playing games. You're hurt, you're confused—"

"Get out!" I gripped the metal bedrail. The heart monitor beside me finally spiked, beeping in a rapid, panicked rhythm. "Get out of my room!"

He stepped closer instead. His eyes were dark. "I'm not leaving until you calm down and sign the papers."

The door swung wide open. Two large men in blue hospital security uniforms stepped in. A nurse trailed behind them, looking alarmed by the shouting.

"Sir, you need to step back," the taller guard said.

"I'm her fiancé," Kasen snapped. He didn't look away from me. "I'm staying right here."

"No," I said. My voice was eerily steady now. "He is a stranger. Remove him."

Kasen turned to me, his eyes wide with a sudden, raw disbelief. "Eden."

"Sir, let's go." The guards grabbed his arms.

Kasen resisted. He planted his feet. "Get your hands off me! Eden, tell them! Tell them to stop!"

I turned my head and stared at the blank white wall. I didn't blink. I listened to the scuffle of shoes, the heavy thud of Kasen being dragged backward.

"Eden!" he shouted from the hallway. His voice cracked. Then the heavy door clicked shut. Silence filled the room again.

An hour passed. The rain kept beating against the window pane. I sat upright in the bed, ignoring the stabbing pain in my side. I didn't cry. The tears simply weren't there. My chest felt hollow, like a scooped-out shell.

The door burst open.

Jayla marched in. Her wet trench coat dripped onto the floor. She held a thick leather portfolio tight against her chest. When she saw the purple bruises blooming across my cheek, she stopped dead in her tracks.

She didn't ask if I was okay. She knew I wasn't.

She walked over and pulled up a plastic chair. She sat down heavily beside my bed. She dropped the portfolio on the floor and looked at me. Her dark eyes were blazing with a terrifying anger, but her hands were gentle when she reached out.

She wrapped her warm fingers around my cold ones.

We sat there in silence. The monitor beeped its steady rhythm. I stared at the wall. I didn't need to explain the accident. The nurse who called her had already filled her in.

I squeezed her hand. "He brought a ring," I whispered.

Jayla’s jaw tightened. "Did he."

"He wanted my kidney. For Shelby. He said it was a fair trade."

A dark, dangerous shadow crossed Jayla’s face. She looked down at the floor, spotting the empty blue box Kasen had left behind. She kicked it under the bed with the heel of her leather boot.

"I told him," I said. My voice was barely a breath. "I told him about the first kidney."

Jayla snapped her head up. "Good."

I finally looked at her. My best friend. The only person who had ever truly seen me. "I'm done, Jayla."

Jayla didn't offer empty comforts. She didn't tell me it would be okay. She just held my hand tighter.

"Then we're done," she said firmly. Her voice was pure steel. "No more hiding. No more taking the high road."

She leaned in close. The smell of rain and expensive perfume clung to her.

"But first," she whispered, "we burn it down."