Seventh Heartbeat

The day Aurora Croft won the Global Philanthropist of the Year award was the day my doctors told me my time was up. I couldn't afford another artificial heart.

On television, the host asked Aurora to call the person she had the most regrets about.

Without a moment's hesitation, she dialed my number.

I answered, and her voice, cool and distant, came through the speaker.

"Do you ever regret leaving me for money all those years ago?"

I glanced at the mountain of bills for the heart transplant I couldnt afford and let out a soft, hollow laugh.

"Aurora, you're so rich now. How about you lend me, say, thirty thousand dollars?"

The line went dead. On the screen, I watched Aurora turn back to the host, her expression like ice.

"I have no regrets."

She had no idea. When her heart was failing, I was the one who secretly gave her mine.

After the live broadcast ended, a transfer for thirty thousand dollars hit my account. I stared at my phone for a long moment, a complicated knot tightening in my chest.

I paid the medical bills. As I settled back into my hospital bed, I heard a familiar voice drift in from the hallway.

I peeked through the crack in the door and saw her. Aurora.

Seven years, and it was as if time hadn't touched her. She was still as radiant and captivating as ever. The only thing that had changed was the person by her side. It wasnt me anymore.

The awards gala had just ended, and she hadn't even had time to change, rushing straight to the hospital. All because her new boy toy had a minor stomachache.

I watched as she cradled Chases head in her arms, her touch so tender. I lowered my gaze, about to quietly shut the door and pretend I hadn't seen anything.

Suddenly, the door was yanked open.

I flinched, my head snapping up to meet her gaze. Her eyes, sharp and cold as shards of ice, swept over me.

"It's been a while," she said, her voice dripping with frost. "Aren't you going to say hello?"

I looked at her, my lips parting. A thousand words crowded my throat, but they all boiled down to one thing.

"Aurora can you lend me another fifty thousand?"

She froze for a second, a flicker of raw anger igniting in her cold eyes. She grabbed my hand, her grip surprisingly strong.

"Seven years, Silas. This is all you have to say to me?"

The dense cluster of needle marks on my wrist throbbed with a dull, persistent pain. I took a deep breath.

"Ms. Croft, you're a very wealthy woman. If I didn't ask for money, I was afraid your boyfriend might get the wrong idea."

A look of confusion, something complex and unreadable, flickered across her face. Before she could speak, Chase tightened his grip on her arm.

"Darling, is this your ex-husband?" he asked, his tone dripping with pity as he looked me over. "What can you even do with fifty thousand? Aurora bought me a suit that cost more than that." He sighed dramatically. "It's a shame, Silas. You didn't know how to appreciate her. If you hadn't heartlessly abandoned her, I never would have had the chance to meet her."

I said nothing, my mind drifting back.

I met Aurora in college. We fell in love, and for five years, we were inseparable. Back then, she wasn't a billionaire CEO, and my body wasn't this fragile wreck. We were just two orphans, two broke students who had finally found the one person who mattered most in the world. We worked ourselves to the bone, dreaming of building a small home of our own.

Just as our small business was starting to take off, Aurora was diagnosed with severe heart failure.

The treatment and transplant would cost a fortune. We drained every penny of our savings, everything wed poured into our dream. To raise the money, I worked multiple jobs, ate one meal a day, and stretched every dollar until it screamed. I pushed myself to the breaking point, just to scrape together enough for her medicine, switching to the cheapest, lowest-quality generics we could find.

But a compatible heart never came.

I watched her waste away, growing thinner and more fragile with each passing day. Just as I was about to lose all hope, my doctor pulled me aside. They had found a perfect match.

The person who was a perfect match for Aurora was me.

My thoughts snapped back to the present.

Aurora stood on her tiptoes to kiss Chase's forehead, her eyes filled with an endless well of affection. "If it wasn't for his heartless betrayal, how would I have ever met my little angel?" she cooed. "That thirty-thousand-dollar wallet you were looking at? I'll buy it for you when we get home. Next time, pick something more expensive. Your woman can afford it."

Watching them, the stinging on my wrist seemed to shoot straight into my chest, the pain so sharp it stole my breath. I wrenched my hand free from Aurora's unyielding grip, having no desire to be the broken measuring stick against which they proved their perfect love.

As I turned to leave, Chase casually stuck out his foot, tripping me.

"Whoa, watch your step, Silas!" he exclaimed with false concern.

I fell to my knees, the medical reports in my hand scattering at Aurora's feet.

Seeing me fall, her face tightened, and she instinctively reached out to help me up. But Chase grabbed her arm.

"What's this?" he asked, his eyes wide.

His question drew Aurora's attention to the papers on the floor. She picked one up, her eyes scanning it quickly.

"Artificial Heart Replacement"

A flash of fury crossed her face. She flung the report at me, the paper striking my cheek.

"Silas! I can't believe you'd stoop this low, faking an illness for money! You're the same as you were seven years ago. All you've ever cared about is money!"

I pushed myself to my feet, my gaze fixed on Aurora's healthy, vibrant form. A faint smile touched my lips as I silently gathered the scattered reports.

"Ms. Croft, you know how much I love money. Why not lend me a little more?"

Chase, ever the actor, looked like he was about to cry. He shook Aurora's arm, but the look he shot me over her shoulder was pure mockery. "Darling, what if it's real? And it was only after Silas left you that you received that heart from that kind donor! Maybe we should help him, please?"

His words seemed to remind her of my "betrayal," of how I had abandoned her for money. The flicker of doubt in her eyes was instantly extinguished, replaced by a glacial coldness.

"The heart of a kind person can't save someone so heartless. He doesn't deserve it."

She turned, pulling Chase with her. He continued to plead my case, but as he glanced back at me, the corner of his mouth curved into a vicious, triumphant smirk.

I bent down and picked up the medical report, now covered in Chase's dusty footprints.

Suddenly, my artificial heart gave a shudder, a mechanical tremor that didn't belong in a human body. My vision swam, and the figures of Aurora and Chase blurred into indistinct shapes.

After a long moment, I wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of my mouth, my eyes tracing the words "Artificial Heart Replacement." My fingers drifted to my chest, brushing over the scar that had been etched there for seven long years.

Even now, Aurora had no idea.

The heart beating in her chest was mine.

Seven years ago, with no suitable donor heart in sight, Aurora's body was giving out. The technology for artificial hearts was still experimental. In theory, it could sustain life, but the risks were enormous.

When I was confirmed as a match, I gave her my heart. I took the artificial onea model with a theoretical lifespan of seven years. To save money, I chose the cheapest one they had.

Ever since, a sharp, stabbing pain would periodically flare up in my chest. Coughing up blood and sudden bouts of weakness became my new normal. And because I never had the money, the surgery to replace the failing device was delayed again and again.

Now, seven years had passed.

The artificial heart in my chest pulsed with its seventh wave of agony. I knew it was well past its breaking point.

I left the hospital and went back to my rented room. It was small, damp, and freezing in the winter, sweltering in the summer. But it was cheap. This was the same place Aurora and I had lived, the place where we had mapped out our entire future together.

After learning my heart was a match for hers, I had pretended to be a greedy, social-climbing parasite. I drew up divorce papers and told her I was leaving.

We had been together for five years. Through all the hardship, I had never once complained, never once thought of leaving her side. She knew how much I loved her, and she couldn't believe I would abandon her. And I knew she loved me to her very core. If she knew the truth, she would never, ever allow me to trade my life for hers.

To save her, I had to be cruel. I had to pretend I'd had enough.

Enough of the endless struggle. Enough of a life with no hope in sight. Enough of cheap medicine, one meal a day, drinking cold water to stave off hunger, and splitting every dollar in two.

I told her I was done with all of it.

I'll never forget that day. The girl who was always so strong, who faced pain and hardship without flinching, cried for the first time. She signed the divorce papers with trembling hands, her tears staining the cheap paper.

And on a different form, an organ donation agreement, I signed my name.

After the surgery, I vanished from her life, branded a traitor. I returned to the small room we had shared for five years, and I waited for the death I had willingly embraced.

I never thought I would see her again.

Now, she had soared to heights we had only dreamed of. And I I could never go back. Watching her on the news, so confident and full of life, a pang of sorrow twisted inside me, quickly followed by a quiet sense of relief.

My phone rang, pulling me from my thoughts. It was the bank.

They informed me that the thirty-thousand-dollar transfer had been a "mistake" on the sender's part. I was required to return the funds immediately or face legal action.

I hung up, a bitter smile on my face. What was there to say? After a moment of silence, I called my buddy, Ben, and asked him to help me find a job. I had to pay her back. Aurora hated me so much. The idea of me, the man who only cared about money, having to work off a debt in installments she would relish it. She would watch me slave away until I dropped.

Because of my heart, my body was weak. Most jobs were out of the question. I scraped by on whatever odd jobs I could find. Ben knew my situation and found me a gig as a server at a banquet. It was relatively easy work, and it paid five hundred dollars a night.

As I put on the uniform, adjusted my mask, and began serving drinks, I saw her again.

She was breathtaking in a designer gown, a vision of elegance and grace. Chase stood beside her in an expensive suit, looking sharp and poised. They held onto each other's arms, a perfect couple, surrounded by a crowd of admirers.

I glanced once, then immediately looked down.

Aurora took a glass from my tray without recognizing me. I was about to turn away when Chase spoke, his voice sharp.

"Hey, watch what you're doing! You spilled wine all over my suit!"

I froze, noticing for the first time a dark, wet patch on his jacket. I didn't say a word, just lowered my head and tried to dab at the stain with a napkin.

Aurora watched me, her brow furrowed, her lips pressed into a thin line.

A malicious glint appeared in Chase's eyes. He suddenly kicked me, his foot connecting squarely with my chest.

A bolt of agony shot through me. I collapsed, a pained gasp escaping my lips.

"Don't touch me with your filthy hands!" he spat. "Security! Get this trash out of here!" His face was a mask of fury, but he couldn't hide the triumphant smirk playing on his lips.

Though only my eyes were visible, in that split second of eye contact, Aurora knew.

Her lips trembled, and a flicker of something, maybe pain, crossed her eyes before it was consumed by a wave of pure scorn. She held up a hand to stop the approaching guards and then ripped the mask from my face.

"Silas. Don't you even say hello to your ex-wife?"

Chase feigned shock. "Silas? Is that you? But you're Aurora's ex-husband. What are you doing working as a waiter?"

The entire hall seemed to fall silent. Every eye in the room was on me.

Then, the murmurs started, growing into a chorus of ridicule.

"I heard he abandoned her for money when she was sick"

"Ugh. What goes around comes around."

"Serves him right, ditching a woman like Aurora Croft only to end up a waiter!"

Someone threw their red wine at me. The liquid splashed over my head. Then another glass followed, and another. Wine rained down on me from all directions, the glasses shattering as they hit my body. Crimson wine and scarlet blood mingled on the floor. It was clear these people were eager to curry favor with Aurora by putting her heartless ex-husband in his place.

Blood trickled down my forehead, but I felt nothing. I remained silent.

Aurora stared at me, her eyes filled with an unconcealed coldness.

"What's wrong, Silas? Cat got your tongue? Or do I have to pay you to speak now?"

A wave of derisive laughter rippled through the crowd.

"You took this job to get my attention, didn't you?" she continued, her voice like steel. "To beg me for more money? Fine. I'll give you what you want."

She had someone bring over a dozen bottles of expensive red wine and open them all.

"Drink every last one of these, and I'll give you fifty thousand dollars."

She threw a stack of cash on the ground. The bills landed in the puddle of wine and blood at my feet. Her face was a frozen mask of contempt.

The entire room watched, their faces full of mockery, enjoying the spectacle.

Ever since the surgery, my body had been frail. I couldn't lift anything heavy, couldn't run or jump. Even walking a short distance left me gasping for breath. For me, alcohol wasn't a recreational substance; it was a poison. A single drop could cause my artificial heart to fail.

I lifted my head and looked at her. A weak smile touched my lips, and I finally spoke.

"And the thirty thousand I don't have to pay that back, right?"

Aurora's expression faltered, a surge of fresh fury rising in her icy eyes. I could hear the sound of her grinding her teeth.

"Fine."

Her answer was all I needed. I smiled, grabbed a bottle, and started chugging. My body, already on the brink, rebelled. The harsh liquid burned my throat, and I gagged, nearly throwing it all up. I forced it down and reached for the next bottle, and the next.

Everyone watched me, their faces alight with cruel amusement.

Only Auroras expression began to change, her face growing darker, more clouded with every bottle I emptied.

As I reached for another, she finally snapped, her hand clamping down on my wrist.

"Silas, would you actually die without money?!"

I looked into her blazing, bloodshot eyes and nodded.

"You're right. Without money, I will die."

She shoved me away in a fury.

"Good! Then drink it all! Drink until you're satisfied!"

My body felt like it was weighted down with lead. The artificial heart in my chest seemed to have stopped beating altogether.

I smiled, took a shallow breath, and lifted another bottle.

Aurora couldn't take it anymore. She snatched the bottle from my hand, letting out a raw, animalistic scream.

"ENOUGH!"

My body finally gave out. I crumpled to the floor, landing in a pile of shattered glass. The sharp edges bit into my skin, staining the ground a deeper shade of red.

The commotion brought Ben running. He saw me, his face contorting in horror, and rushed to my side. He helped me up, then turned and screamed at Aurora, his voice cracking with anguish.

"He gave you his heart! He's been living with an artificial one all this time! He can't drink, don't you get it? It'll kill him! Do you have any idea what you've done?"