The Price of My Kidney

I thought I was marrying for love. Instead, I walked straight into a slaughterhouse, all carefully arranged just for me.

The fianc I'd loved for three years slipped an organ donation form between the pages of our marriage paperwork and tricked me into signing it all to save his adopted sister, a girl he shared no blood with.

When the anesthesia wore off, I was missing a kidney, and I'd been thrown out into a thunderstorm like garbage.

They thought I was as good as dead. What they didn't know was that I clawed my way back out of hell on nothing but the will to get even.

I was going to cut my way to them, step by step, and make every single person in this conspiracy pay.

Pain.

A tearing, ripping agony spread from my lower back, like a rusty saw dragging back and forth across my nerves.

I forced my eyes open. The blinding surgical lights made my head spin. The air was thick with the smell of disinfectant.

This wasn't the bridal suite Sebastian and I had set up together.

This was a cold, sealed underground operating room.

"You're awake?"

A familiar, ice-cold voice sounded by my ear.

I turned my head with effort. Sebastian stood over me in a perfectly tailored couture suit, looking down at me. He held a glass of red wine, and his eyes had none of their old warmth. All that was left was a sneer that chilled me to the bone.

"Sebastian... what happened to me? My stomach hurts so badly..." My voice was hoarse. I struggled to sit up, only to find my hands and feet strapped down to the bed.

Panic seized my heart in an instant.

"Don't thrash around. We just took out one of your kidneys. If the wound splits open, you could actually die." Sebastian took a sip of his wine, his tone as casual as if he were chatting about the weather.

Boom!

My mind exploded. I stared at him, refusing to believe it. "What did you say? What kidney?!"

"Thank you for the kidney, by the way."

A sugary-sweet voice came from behind Sebastian.

Grace stood there in designer hospital pajamas, her cheeks rosy. There wasn't a trace left of the "end-stage uremia" frailty she'd shown before. She wrapped herself around Sebastian's arm and rested her head on his shoulder.

"See, Sebastian, I told you. As long as you asked, she'd hand over her worthless life for you. A kidney's nothing."

Sebastian tapped her nose affectionately. "Silly girl. If it saves you, I'd take more than a kidney. I'd take her whole life if I had to."

A cold went through my entire body, as if I were falling into a bottomless pit.

"Sebastian! Have you lost your mind?! I'm your fiance! We're getting married tomorrow!" I thrashed like a madwoman, the straps cutting bloody welts into my wrists.

"Married?" Sebastian soffed and looked at me like I was an idiot. "Susan, go look at yourself in a mirror. A broke nobody with no money and no power you thought you were good enough to walk through the doors of my family's home?"

He pulled a document from his jacket pocket and slammed it down across my face.

"Take a good look. This is the Voluntary Organ Donation Consent Form, signed in your own handwriting."

The sharp edge of the paper sliced the corner of my eye. I stared at the document.

The signature line that really was my handwriting.

Then I remembered.

Three days ago, Sebastian had handed me a thick stack of tedious prenuptial property agreements to sign, saying it was his family requirement. I trusted him completely, so I signed without reading a single word.

So that was it. That death warrant had been buried in the pile.

"This is assault! This is a crime! I'm calling the police!" I screamed in despair, tears bursting from my eyes.

"Go ahead. Call them." Sebastian leaned down and grabbed my chin, his eyes venomous. "You signed the consent form. A private doctor did the surgery. Who do you think the cops will believe some hysterical woman, or the legal team of the Cross Group?"

"Let me go! Give me my kidney back!" I shook my head wildly, wishing I could bite a chunk out of him.

"You're too loud." Sebastian flung my chin away in disgust and tossed a check onto me. "That's a million dollars, for one kidney. You've never seen that much money in your life, have you? Take the money and get out of this city. If I ever see you again, it won't just be a kidney I take."

He turned to the two bodyguards at the door. "Throw her out."

"Yes, Mr. Cross."

Two big men came over, roughly unstrapped me, and dragged me off the bed like a dead dog.

The wound split open instantly, blood soaking through the hospital gown.

"Sebastian! Even as a ghost, I will never let any of you go!"

My curses were sealed behind the heavy iron door.

Late night. Howling wind and pouring rain.

The bodyguards dumped me on a deserted mountain highway and drove off.

Cold rain mixed with blood and ran into the mud.

I curled up on the ground, convulsing with pain, my consciousness slipping away bit by bit.

Just when I thought I would die in that storm

Two blinding high beams cut through the curtain of rain.

A black Rolls-Royce Phantom screeched to a stop right in front of me.

The car door opened. A pair of polished, handmade leather shoes stepped into a puddle.

A black umbrella opened over my head, blocking out the downpour.

I struggled to open my eyes. What I saw was a face so cold and sharp it looked like a god's. The man wore a black trench coat, and his presence was so powerful that even the rain around him seemed to freeze.

"Susan?" His low voice was strangely clear in the rainy night.

I didn't know him. but I knew he was my only hope of survival.

I clutched the hem of his coat, my knuckles white.

"Save me..."

The man looked down at me, something dark and unreadable churning in his deep eyes.

"Do you want to die? Or do you want revenge?" he asked.

"Revenge..." I bit down hard, my mouth full of the taste of blood. "I want them to pay... blood for blood."

A cold, hard curve lifted at the corner of his mouth.

"Get in."

He bent down, scooped me up into his arms, and carried me into the endless dark.

When I woke again, the first thing I saw was a lavish European-style domed ceiling.

I was lying on a soft, enormous bed. The wound on my back had been cleaned and re-dressed with fresh gauze.

"Now that you're awake, get up and take your medicine."

By the floor-to-ceiling windows, the man from last night stood with his back to me, a cup of coffee in his hand.

"Who are you?" I propped myself up and watched him warily.

He turned around. The sunlight traced the sharp line of his jaw.

"Kane Blackwood."

I sucked in a sharp breath.

Kane Blackwood. The man at the helm of the Blackwood business empire, the true uncrowned king of this city. And the Cross family is nothing but a second-rate clan that only survives under the protection of the Blackwood family.

"Mr. Blackwood, why did you save me?" I forced myself to stay calm.

Kane walked to the sofa and sat down, crossing his legs, his sharp eyes studying me.

"Because the enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Just then the bedroom door opened, and a doctor in a white coat walked in, his face grim.

"Mr. Blackwood, the lab results are back." The doctor handed Kane a report, then turned to look at me with a flicker of pity in his eyes.

"Ms. Susan, were you drinking some kind of 'nourishing soup' that Sebastian made for you every day?"

I blinked, then nodded. "Yes. He said I was run-down and needed to build up my body for when we tried for a baby. Why?"

The doctor sighed. "That wasn't nourishing soup at all. We found high concentrations of a chronic immunosuppressant and heavy-metal toxins in your blood."

"What does that mean?" My head buzzed.

"It means they didn't just steal your kidney. They wanted you dead, too." Kane spoke coldly, tossing the report onto the nightstand. "Taken over time, that poison would have made your remaining kidney fail fast. Within six months, you'd die of kidney failure."

Boom!

It hit me like a hammer. My mind went blank.

My whole body trembled, my stomach lurched, and I felt like I was about to throw up.

The image of Sebastian gently watching me drink that soup every day turned, in that instant, into the most terrifying nightmare in the world.

They didn't just want my organs. They wanted to erase the evidence to shut me up forever.

"Ugh" I leaned over the edge of the bed, dry-heaving, tears falling uncontrollably onto the carpet.

So cruel!

So vicious!

"Done crying?" Kane's voice held no warmth at all. "Tears won't kill Sebastian."

My head snapped up. I wiped the tears off my face and bit down on my lip until I tasted rust.

"Mr. Blackwood, help me." I stared at him dead-on. "I know Blackwood family and Cross family are fighting over the land on the south side of the city. Help me destroy the Cross family, and I'll do anything."

Kane narrowed his eyes, as if appraising my worth.

"You have nothing left. What do you think you have to bargain with?"

"I have the Cross family's most fatal weakness in my hands!" I gasped out. "If I can prove they tricked me into the donation and harvested my organs illegally, the Cross Group's stock will crash. They'll never get that land on the south side!"

Kane let out a quiet laugh, but the amusement never reached his eyes.

"Susan, you're too naive. The Cross family did this, which means they prepared for everything. That consent form you signed in your own hand is their shield. If you go out there now and start talking, they'll turn it around on you and have you charged with extortion."

I froze.

He was right. Black ink on white paper. How was I supposed to flip that?

Kane stood, walked to the bed, and leaned down over me, his presence overwhelming.

"I can give you the best medical care, the most professional PR team, and the best lawyers. But on one condition. You have to become a blade sharp enough to drive straight into the Cross family's heart. So do you have the nerve?"

Looking into his fathomless eyes, the hatred inside me grew like wildfire.

"I have the nerve," I answered without hesitation.

"Good." Kane straightened up. "Let the games begin."

Kane's methods were clean, decisive, and shockingly fast.

That very afternoon, an explosive topic suddenly appeared on social media and instantly blew up across the whole internet.

The headline was lurid: "Prospective Heiress Demands Massive Prenup Payment, Fails, Then Flees With a Million Overnight!"

The attached photo was an engagement shot of me and Sebastian, with a screenshot of a one-million-dollar check transfer underneath it.

The poster claimed to be an insider close to the Cross family, bitterly condemning me as a materialistic, vain woman who'd thrown away years of love for money who'd even fled with the cash the night before the wedding, leaving the Cross family humiliated.

The comment section was nothing but slut-shaming and vicious abuse aimed at me.

"Holy crap, this woman has no shame. She bailed for a million?"

"Feel so bad for Sebastian, treating a gold-digger that well and getting stabbed in the back."

"Someone dig up her info! Make sure she can never show her face in society again!"

I watched the endless stream of hateful comments refreshing on the tablet and laughed coldly.

So the Cross family were afraid I'd cause trouble. They'd struck first, trying to nail me to the pillory and strip me of any chance to speak.

"How does it feel?" Kane leaned against the doorframe with a glass of wine, watching me.

"Cheap tactics." I tossed the tablet aside, picked up my own phone, and logged into my verified, real-name social media account.

I didn't write a long defense. I just posted one photo.

In it, I was wearing a baggy hospital gown, my face pale as paper, my lower back wrapped in thick gauze with blood soaking through it. The sight was shocking.

The caption was a single line: "I didn't run from the wedding. I'm just learning how to live the rest of my life with only one kidney."

Tap. Send.

In under five minutes, the post shot straight to the trending list.

Everyone was stunned.

"Wait, what?! Missing a kidney?!"

"That wound looks terrifying she just had surgery, right?"

"So the runaway-bride story turned into a kidney-harvesting story? This plot twist is insane!"

The Cross family PR team moved fast. Sebastian's mother Mrs. Cross, the woman who'd always looked down her nose at everyone replied directly in my comments from her main account:

"Susan, why are you playing the victim? You donated that kidney to Grace of your own free will! That million was the 'recovery fee' you demanded yourself! Now you've taken the money and come online to stir up the crowd. Do you have any conscience left?"

Her words sounded righteous, but they were full of holes.

My fingers flew across the screen. I immediately posted a second time.

It was a clip of high-definition dashcam footage.

In the video, on a wild, stormy night, two big men threw me onto a muddy highway like trash. My wound split open, and blood ran across the ground.

Caption: "Madam Cross, is this what you call 'taking the money of my own free will'?"

The moment that video dropped, the entire internet erupted.

Public opinion flipped in an instant.

"What the hell, that's literally attempted murder!"

"Dumping someone fresh out of surgery into a thunderstorm in the middle of the night the Cross family are pure evil!"

"Boycott the Cross Group! Investigate the Cross family!"

The Cross Group's official account was buried under hundreds of thousands of furious comments, and the stock dipped in the closing minutes of trading.

I seized the momentum and typed out a third post, tagging Sebastian directly.

"Sebastian, do you dare show the whole internet the original copy of that Organ Donation Consent Form I signed in my own handwriting? Let everyone see exactly who's listed as the recipient on it."

Checkmate.

He'd buried that form in the marriage paperwork to trick me into signing it. Whether he produced it or refused to, his crime of fraudulent donation would be locked in.

The whole internet was waiting for Sebastian's response.

Ten minutes later, my phone rang.

It was Sebastian.

I hit accept and put it on speaker.

"Susan, you've grown a spine. You dare come after me online." Sebastian's voice carried a cold, murderous edge.

"Where's the original? Too scared to produce it?" I shot back, ice in my voice.

"Heh." Sean let out a cruel laugh. "I am scared. But are you brave enough to gamble with your parents' lives?"

My heart clenched. "What did you do?!"

From the other end came my mother's shrill, sobbing cry: "Susan! A whole gang of thugs came out of nowhere and smashed up our little diner! Your dad got beaten until he was coughing up blood, and now they've dragged him into a car!"

"Sebastian! You animal!" I screamed, losing control.

"Delete every post right now. Post a video saying you made it all up, that you're mentally ill. Otherwise, you'll never see your father again as long as you live!"

The line went dead.

My whole body went limp, and the phone slipped from my hand.

Despair flooded over me like a tide.

Ding.

A video landed on my phone.

My father, his face covered in blood, was pinned to the floor of a van by two big men, barely conscious.

Madam Cross sent a voice message: "Susan, if I don't see your apology video in ten minutes, the next thing I send you will be your father's finger."

I shook so hard I couldn't control it, huge tears splashing down onto the screen.

I couldn't beat them.

They had money and power. Wiping out my whole family would be as easy as crushing an ant.

With trembling hands, I opened the camera on my phone and pointed it at my own ashen face.

"I'm sorry. My name is Susan, and the posts I made earlier were all"

A large, well-defined hand suddenly reached over and snatched the phone away.

"That's all the backbone you've got?" Kane looked down at me, his eyes terrifyingly cold.

"He's holding my dad hostage! What am I supposed to do?! I can't gamble with my father's life!" I screamed, breaking down, reaching for the phone.

Kane caught my wrist and hauled me up off the floor.

"There's no turning back from revenge. If you back down now, they'll think you're weak and easy to crush and tomorrow they'll come for your whole family!"

He looked straight into my eyes, spacing out each word with unquestionable authority. "I've already sent my best security team to rescue your parents. What you need to do right now is go and win your fight."

I froze, staring at him blankly.

He pressed a gold-embossed invitation into my hands.

"Eight o'clock tonight. The Cross Group's annual product launch also Sebastian's first public appearance as he formally takes over as CEO."

A flash of ruthlessness crossed Kane's eyes. "Go. Find their weak spot, and deal them a fatal blow. As for your parents I give you my word on the Blackwood family's name. Not a single hair on their heads will be touched."

Looking at the certainty in his eyes, my chaotic heart somehow steadied.

Eight o'clock that night. The grand ballroom of the International Hotel downtown.

The place was packed with the rich and famous. A wall of media cameras hemmed the stage in.

Sebastian stood under the spotlight in a white suit, delivering his speech with cocky confidence.

"The Cross Group will dedicate itself in the future to"

Bang!

I shoved the heavy ballroom doors open.

I walked in wearing the bold red dress Kane had prepared for me, stepping forward on four-inch heels, one stride at a time.

Lips red as fire, face cold as ice.

The whole room fell dead silent in an instant.

Every camera swung toward me in unison.

"It's Susan! The fiance who leaked everything online!"

The smile on Sebastian's face froze. Madam Cross shot up from her front-row seat and pointed at me, screaming.

"Security! Who let her in?! Throw this crazy woman out!"

I showed no fear. I walked straight to the press table closest to the stage and picked up a reporter's spare microphone.

"No need. I'll say one thing, then leave."

My voice carried clearly through the speakers into every corner of the room.

I looked at Sebastian, his face livid up on the stage, and a cruel smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.

"Sebastian after Grace got my kidney transplanted, has she been taking her anti-rejection medication on schedule?"

Sebastian's pupils contracted sharply. "What are you getting at?"

"I forgot to mention something." I toyed with a strand of my hair, my tone as light as if I were discussing the weather.

"My blood type is extremely rare a Bombay phenotype, with a recessive genetic mutation. My organs carry an extremely strong tendency toward delayed hyperacute rejection."

"Once it triggers, she'll have less than three months left."

The whole room broke into an uproar.

The reporters fired their shutters like mad.

Madam Cross covered her mouth in horror. "You're lying! You vicious witch, you're cursing my daughter!"

I ignored her hysterics.

I locked my eyes on Sebastian, swaying on the stage, and added softly at a volume only the two of us could hear, but enough to shatter his soul:

"Unfortunately, the only cure for this kind of rejection is produced by exactly one elite lab in Switzerland. And its founder happened to be a lifelong friend of my late grandfather close as brothers."

I lifted my chin slightly, savoring the pure terror that surged into Sebastian's eyes.

"Sebastian. Now is the moment for you to get down on your knees and beg me."