Madness in the Name of Love

My wife, the wealthiest woman in the city, demanded my kidney

for the son she had with her one true love.

When I refused, she had our young son beaten until his skin split, then dangled him over the churning sea.

If you dont donate, she snarled, Ill drop this little bastard to the sharks!

Waves crashed below. Orion trembled, choking out, Daddy, save me

Seeing his small body bloodied and torn, I agreed. They strapped me to the operating table

without even anesthesia.

The cold scalpel carved into me. But when I finally dragged myself from that hospital, I learned the truth: my son was already gone, devoured by sharks, not a bone left.

Three years later, the other boys new kidney began to fail. His fathermy wifes loverwas grief-stricken.

Isabelle flew into a rage.

That bastards filthy kidney did this! Its his fault Noah suffers!

Bring them back, she ordered. Its time they were taught a lesson.

For the man she adored, she unleashed all her power to hunt us down for another kidney.

But this time, she was destined for disappointment.

Because my son and I have been dead for five years.

[1]

In the private hospital suite, Isabelle MacLarens assistant bowed his head, his voice tight.

"Ms. MacLaren, we've checked every possible channel. There is absolutely no trace of Mr. Hbert or your son."

"The last time anyone saw them was five years ago"

Isabelle's face hardened, and she slammed her palm on the table. "A bunch of useless fools! How can two living people just vanish into thin air?"

The shout startled the little boy in the hospital bed, and he burst into tears.

Leo immediately scooped the child into his arms, his own voice choked with sobs. "Does does he hate me that much? He'd rather watch Noah die than help me with this one small thing?"

He looked up at Isabelle, his eyes red-rimmed and tragic. "Is my death the only thing that will make him forgive me? Is that what it will take for him to save my baby?"

Isabelle's brow furrowed. She patted his back comfortingly. "Don't say such foolish things. I'll find them if I have to tear this city apart, brick by brick."

She snatched her coat from the chair and stormed out of the room.

As her sports car tore through the streets, she opened her messaging app and fired off a series of furious texts to my old number.

[Elias Hbert, youve grown bold in five years, haven't you? Now you're ignoring my messages?]

[If your kidney isn't good enough, we'll use Orion's!]

[Bring him back to me now. Don't make me come for him myself.]

The messages remained unanswered, unread.

Isabelles fury mounted, and she typed out a final, venomous threat.

[You ungrateful piece of trash! It seems you've forgotten what I'm capable of.]

Leos hand covered hers, stopping her from sending it. He shook his head, tears streaming down his face. "Don't, Isabelle. I just want him to save Noah. I never wanted to hurt him."

"Please, just tell him I'll do anything he asks. He can have anything he wants. My life, even"

Isabelle pulled him into an embrace, her expression grim. The car screeched to a halt in front of a derelict mansion.

The overgrown, weed-choked courtyard pulled Isabelle's mind back five years.

Leo's son, Noah, was in renal failure and needed an urgent transplant. Before the compatibility tests were even back, she had me dragged to an operating table.

I fought back with everything I had, but Isabelle was immovable.

"Leo has always been fragile," she had said, her voice like ice. "I will not allow him or his son to suffer any harm!"

"If you won't donate, your son will pay the price for you."

Leo had knelt before me, his face a mask of tearful desperation. "Elias, you'll only lose one kidney, but Noah will lose his life!"

"I know you hate me. You can hit me, you can curse me, I'll take it all. But my son is innocent. How can you be so cruel as to let him die?"

To force my hand, she had her men drag my son, my little Orion, to the basement. The sound of a whip laced with iron barbs cracking against his skin echoed through the house, followed by his heart-wrenching screams.

My own heart felt like it was being ripped from my chest. My nails dug into my palms, drawing blood. "He's only five years old! You'll kill him!"

"I'll do it! I'll give you anything, just please, let my son go!"

Before I could finish, Isabelle kicked me to the ground. "You should have been this cooperative from the start. It's a privilege for your worthless life to be used to save Noah. Now, be a good boy and give up the kidney, or you will never see your son again."

I never imagined those words would become a prophecy.

That surgery took my left kidney.

But that wasn't enough for Isabelle. To punish me for my "selfishness," she had my barely conscious son dragged into the operating room as well. They took his kidney, she said, as a 'spare'.

"If you hadn't wasted so much time, Noah wouldn't have had to suffer for so long," she had sneered. "This is the price for defying me."

After the surgery, Isabelle took Leo and Noah abroad to recover, leaving us behind without a second thought for five long years.

The memory made her rub her temples in frustration.

"Elias is a vindictive, spiteful creature. Finding him now will be difficult."

She sighed, her voice softening as she looked at Leo. "And my poor Noah has suffered so much because of him. When I find Elias, I will make him repay that suffering a hundred times over."

Leo nestled against her shoulder, his soft sobs the only sound. They looked like a pair of star-crossed lovers, united in their tragic struggle.

My soul drifted, a powerless spectator, watching this scene with a bitter, profound sense of irony. They were searching so desperately for me, yet they had no idea I was right here, watching them.

"Ms. MacLaren we we found him! We have a location on your son!"

[2]

The despair in the car vanished, replaced by a jolt of electric energy.

Leo trembled with excitement, grabbing Isabelles arm. "Where? Tell me where they are!"

"I'll go to him right now. I'll beg him. He can take my kidney, he can take my life, I don't care!" he cried. "I'll do anything to save Noah!" His voice was raw, his eyes red and vulnerable.

A flicker of pity crossed Isabelles face. She squeezed his hand. "Don't worry. I won't let you suffer like that. If that bastard dares to give you any trouble, I'll make his entire family pay."

She turned to her assistant, her voice sharp as glass. "What are you waiting for? Get him and bring him here! Every second Noah waits is another moment of agony!"

A sheen of cold sweat broke out on the assistant's forehead. "But but"

CRACK.

The back of her hand sent him sprawling to the floor.

Isabelles face was a thundercloud, her voice glacial. "Are you protecting them too?"

"I'm warning you, if anything happens to Noah, I will hold you personally responsible."

The assistant scrambled to his feet, his voice shaking. "But, Ms. MacLaren your son he's already dead."

"What did you say?!"

Isabelle's rage exploded. She kicked him hard in the stomach. "You better think very carefully before you speak again! Lie to me, and I'll have you chopped up and fed to the dogs!"

"It's true" the assistant gasped, holding out a file with a trembling hand. "The death certificate it says he died of post-operative complications."

"The date of death was the same day you left the country."

Isabelle's brow furrowed, then she slammed her fist into the wall in a fit of rage.

"That animal! He would let his own son die just to get back at me?"

"I sent him a message myself, telling him to come pick the boy up. If he truly cared, how could Orion have died?"

"He probably found some other rich woman to latch onto and saw Orion as a burden!" she spat. Her expression shifted. "But Orion was still a MacLaren. To be so heartless he's courting death!"

Hearing this, Leo's face paled almost imperceptibly.

Hovering above, my spirit wept tears of blood.

After my surgery, Isabelle had taken her entire medical team to escort Noah abroad. My Orion was left alone on a cold operating table, abandoned. The "message" she sent was a single, cold, automated text: [SURGERY COMPLETE].

I was frantic. Ignoring the searing pain in my own body, I clawed my way out of the basement, only to be stopped by Leos men. They broke my spine and threw me into a fighting pit.

For three days and three nights, I was torn at by savage beasts, ripped apart, nearly eaten alive. But I couldn't die. My son was waiting for me.

On the third day, I finally managed to drag my mutilated body from that cage and crawl, with the last of my strength, to the hospital.

But all I found was a room drenched in crimson. Orion lay on the operating table, his small body cold and still. He had bled out, waiting for a father who came too late. He closed his eyes forever, right before me.

Isabelle had killed my son with her own hands, and now she had the audacity to slander me.

"A worthless man who can't even protect his own child has no right to be part of the MacLaren family! He let Orion die! I will make that scum pay with his life!"

[3]

Isabelle's voice was frigid as she gave her orders to the assistant.

"Go to his mother's asylum. Drag her to the family cemetery. Make her crawl on her knees every step of the way. Cover the path with nails. I want to watch her crawl over them and atone for her son's sins!"

Leo quickly grabbed her arm. "Isabelle, no. As monstrous as he was, he was still your husband. Please, don't be so cruel to his mother."

"He must have been devastated by Orion's death. That's why he ran. I don't blame him."

"But now that Orion is gone only Elias's family can save Noah."

As if making a great, noble decision, Leo suddenly knelt before Isabelle.

"Let me go and beg her! Elias was always jealous of your love for me. He couldn't stand to see me happy."

He looked up, his pale face streaked with tears, a look of grim determination in his eyes. "If I let him humiliate me enough, maybe he'll soften. As Noah's father, it's what I have to do"

Without another word, he slapped himself hard across the face, twice. Bright red handprints bloomed on his cheeks.

Isabelles eyes widened. She grabbed his wrist. "Who told you you could hurt yourself?"

"That worthless trash isn't fit to have you kneel to him."

She sneered and pulled out her phone. "I have ways of making him come crawling to me."

Her finger swiped across the screen, and she dialed the number for the city's top psychiatric hospital.

"Bring me Elias Hbert's mother. We're about to find out just how tough he really is."

From my spectral prison, I let out a silent scream. I saw the flash of triumph in Leo's eyes.

He feigned terror, hiding behind Isabelle. "His mother she always hated me. She called me a gold-digging whore, a kept man."

"Every time I tried to apologize, she would either scream at me or physically attack me. And now that she's lost her mind"

"I'm I'm so scared."

Isabelle gently wiped his tears away. "Don't be afraid. As long as I'm here, no one will touch a single hair on your head."

My soul slammed against the invisible barrier, again and again, a futile, desperate assault. My mother was the only person I had left to care about in this world. And Isabelle was going after her too.

She seemed to have forgotten how my mother had treated her. When Isabelle's company was on the brink of collapse, it was my mother who mortgaged our ancestral home to bail her out. When she was nearly ousted from her own board, it was my mother who pushed for our marriage to secure her position.

Isabelle had once looked me in the eye and sworn she would be loyal to me for the rest of her life.

Now, she loved another man.

"This will be a good chance to settle old scores for you," she cooed, holding Leo close. "If Elias won't show his face, his old hag of a mother will pay his debts."

I lunged at her, my spectral form passing through her body time and time again.

The next time I saw my mother, she was slumped in a wheelchair, her eyes vacant.

Leo knelt before her. "Ma'am, I know you hate me, but Noah is innocent Please, tell me where Elias is. I'm begging you, save my baby!"

He kowtowed repeatedly, but my mother began to tremble violently. Her cloudy eyes focused on Leo's face, and a terrifying hatred flared within them.

"You monster! You killed my son and my grandson I will have my revenge, in this life or the next!"

[4]

My mother struggled to lunge at Leo, but Isabelle kicked the wheelchair over, sending her sprawling to the ground.

She looked down at the old woman with contempt. "I pay for you to live in a comfortable care facility out of respect for our past. Is this how you repay me?"

She ground the heel of her stiletto into my mother's hand. "Tell me where Elias is, and I might let you have a clean death."

My mother lay on the floor, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. I tried desperately to shield her, but my ghostly form was useless.

"Find Elias?" my mother suddenly laughed, hot tears streaming from her clouded eyes. "What right do you have to see him?"

A sharp, stabbing pain shot through my very soul.

Isabelle grabbed her by the chin, her voice venomous. "I'm giving him a chance to atone! Five years ago, his selfishness almost killed Noah! If he donates his other kidney like a good boy, I can pretend none of this ever happened"

Leo rushed over, throwing his arms around Isabelle. "Isabelle, don't! It's my place to beg him to save Noah. I don't want anything else. I just want my son to be safe."

My mother stared at them, and a tearful, broken laugh escaped her lips. "Retribution! This is the price for your evil!"

"Son, can you see? Those who sow wickedness will reap a bitter harvest!"

Isabelle shot her an irritated glance. "Stop playing the crazy old woman! If he doesn't show up in one hour, you'll atone for him!"

"Don't waste your breath. He's not coming back." My mother coughed up a spray of blood, but her smile was unwavering. Tears continued to roll down her cheeks. "My son he died at your hands a long time ago."

Isabelles pupils contracted. Then, a cold, certain smile spread across her face. "Old woman, there's a limit to how far you can stretch a lie. It was just a kidney. It's not a fatal procedure. Elias is a grown man. He's not going to die from losing a kidney. He's just hiding. How pathetic."

She gestured for her bodyguards to force my mother to her knees, then took a steel rod from an assistant.

"Elias Hbert, you better be watching!" she said, turning on her phone's video camera. "If your mother dies from an 'accident' today, her blood will be on your hands!"

The steel rod came down hard on my mother's back. Blood instantly soaked through her clothes.

"Is licking the boots of some rich woman so satisfying that you'd abandon the mother who gave you life?" Isabelle sneered at the camera. "How utterly depraved."

The second blow landed with a sickening crack of bone. My mother whimpered and collapsed.

I tried to stop it, my soul passing through her body again and again, my spectral tears falling unseen.

When there was still no response from me, Isabelles eyes grew darker. "This old bitch is tougher than she looks."

My mother gritted her teeth against the pain and let out a soft chuckle. "Go ahead and kill me. Then I can finally be with my Elias and my Orion."

"You!"

Enraged, Isabelle raised the rod again, but Leo threw himself in front of my mother.

"Isabelle, stop! I just want to save Noah! I don't want to hurt innocent people! Please, let her go."

Seeing him, Isabelle let out a long sigh, her expression softening. "Leo, you're just too kind. That's why Elias was always able to walk all over you."

Leo choked back a sob. "I know she never liked me, but I believe that kindness can beget kindness. If they're willing to save my Noah, I can forgive everything that's happened."

My soul trembled with a rage so profound it nearly tore me apart. It was Leo, using Isabelles affection as a weapon, who had driven us to our doom!

Isabelle patted his back, a sudden thought occurring to her. She looked at my mother. "Elias is counting on you being too soft to hurt her. That's why he's hiding like a coward."

She waved over a doctor. "Take her for compatibility testing. One of the family's kidneys has to be a match."

My mother was dragged roughly towards the operating room. They didn't even bother with anesthesia before cutting her open.

Isabelle took out her phone again and sent ten messages to my number.

"If you don't show up, I'll livestream the organ removal."

When the test results came back, the assistant burst into the room, his face white as a sheet. In his hand, he clutched an old, battered cell phone.

Isabelle turned away in annoyance. "Why are you showing me that piece of junk? Where is Elias?!"

"Ms. MacLaren this was Mr. Hbert's phone."

Isabelle shot to her feet. "What are you talking about?"

The assistant's voice trembled. "We found we found Mr. Hbert's body. In a cemetery on the outskirts of the city."

"The autopsy shows a fractured spine and his entire body was covered in bite marks from wild animals"