Chapter 2

“Sign it.” Alistair Montgomery sat on the leather sofa and casually tossed me an organ donation agreement without even lifting a glance.

He was idly fiddling with a custom-made lighter, his voice colder than the torrential rain outside.

“Lily’s kidney failure has worsened, and your tissue match is a perfect fit.”

I was soaked to the bone and collapsed onto the ground like a ragdoll.

I stared in disbelief at the man before me—the one I’d loved for ten years.

“I just escaped from the scamming district…”

My voice is hoarse, and it feels like I’ve swallowed a blade in my throat.

“I was locked in a water dungeon by them for three whole years, with blood being drawn from me and drugs being tested on me every single day.”

I raised my hands, trembling.

All ten fingernails were forcibly torn off, leaving behind only deformed growths of flesh now.

“You don’t ask me how I’ve been these past three years—instead, as soon as we meet, you’re already asking for my kidney?”

Victor Sterling, sitting on the other side, let out a cold laugh.

He is my blood-related older brother.

Yet right now, he’s looking at me with the same gaze one would give to trash.

“Sloane, stop playing the poor victim.”

“If it hadn’t been for your jealousy of Lily and your insistence on running away from home, how could you have been abducted by human traffickers?”

“You’re only getting what you deserve.”

I jerked my head up and stared at him intently.

“Did I run away from home?”

“Three years ago that night, it was Lily who sent me a message saying she’d gotten lost at the dock and asked me to pick her up!”

“When I got there, several men knocked me unconscious and took me aboard the boat!”

Alistair finally raised his head.

He looked at me, his eyes devoid of any trace of emotion.

“It was me who sent your location to those people.”

Boom—

It was as if a thunderbolt had exploded in my mind.

I stared at him blankly, thinking I must have misheard.

“What did you say?”

Alistair stood up, walked over to me, and looked down at me from above.

“Lily has been in poor health since childhood, and she needs a healthy donor.”

“Now that you’ve held the position of the Sterling family’s young heiress for so many years, it’s about time you repaid her.”

“I’m sending you away to let you experience a bit of hardship out there—so you’ll learn to behave yourself.”

Victor tapped the ash off his cigarette casually, his tone light and nonchalant.

“I personally went to the police station to close your missing-persons case.”

“Outwardly, we’re claiming that you stole money from the family and ran away with a strange man.”

“This way, the reputations of the Sterling family and the Montgomery family won’t be tarnished.”

My heart felt as if it had been brutally crushed by an invisible giant hand.

The pain is so intense that I can’t breathe.

Three years.

More than a thousand days and nights.

In that dark, sunless dungeon, I was treated like an animal.

Relying on my longing for them, I’ve struggled time and again to snatch myself back from the clutches of death.

I thought they must be frantically looking for me.

Result.

The very people who pushed me into hell with their own hands are my beloved husband and my closest brother.

“Why…”

I was lying on the floor, tears mixed with blood splattering onto the carpet.

“Lily is just an adopted daughter! I’m your real younger sister!”

I screamed hysterically at Victor.

Victor’s face darkened, and he suddenly strode over, kicking me hard in the solar plexus.

“Shut up!”

“Although Lily is an adopted daughter, she’s kinder and more sensible than you!”

“Besides causing trouble, what else can you do?”

I was kicked so hard that I flew backward and crashed into the coffee table.

My throat went sweet, and I spat out a large mouthful of fresh blood.

Alistair frowned, as if he were annoyed that I’d stained the carpet.

“Don’t waste your time talking to her.”

“Sign the document, and we’ll schedule the surgery for tomorrow.”

“Besides the kidney, Lily also needs your bone marrow.”

“Since your life is so tough, just donate some bone marrow and have a kidney removed—you won’t die.”

I clutched my chest and let out a bitter laugh.

I'm laughing so hard my eyes are watering.

“What if I don’t sign?”

Alistair looked at me coldly.

“Not signing?”

“Then I’ll just send you back to the high seas.”

“I heard the black market over there is very interested in organs from young women like you.”

“By then, it won’t be as simple as just removing a kidney.”

My heart is completely dead.

This is the man I’ve loved for ten years.

This is the older brother I’ve been calling for twenty years.

I bit my teeth and pulled myself up from the ground.

“Okay, I’ll sign.”

I picked up the pen and made a heavy mark on the agreement.

Not a signature.

Instead, it tore through the entire sheet of paper.

“I’d rather die than give my organs to that bitch!”

Alistair was furious.

“Lock her in the basement!”

“Starve her for three days, and I’ll see if she signs!”