Chapter 2

The VIP suite of a high-end private hospital reeked of antiseptic.

Derek Lancaster was sprawled across a leather armchair, one leg crossed over the other, cradling a cup of premium tea that my well-paid private nurse had just brewed for him.

My daughter, Vivian — Vivi — lay in the hospital bed, barely able to move.

She'd just undergone surgery to have a kidney removed. Her face was as white as the sheets beneath her. Yet the way she looked at Derek — soft, syrupy, completely devoted — you'd think she'd just saved the entire human race.

Beside the bed, Derek's eight-year-old son Benny was using Vivi's limited-edition Chanel handbag as a soccer ball, kicking it across the marble floor.

The metal hardware cracked against the stone with a sound that set my teeth on edge. A bag worth tens of thousands of dollars, destroyed in minutes.

I stood at the foot of the bed, staring at this absurd little family of three.

I reached into my Hermès bag and pulled out a bank card I'd prepared in advance. I set it on the nightstand. Cold. Deliberate.

"That's one million dollars."

"Take the money, take your son, and disappear from my daughter's life forever."

Derek paused mid-sip.

Before he could say a word, Benny dropped the bag, charged across the room like a tiny bull, snatched the glass of water off the nightstand, and hurled it to the floor.

Shards of glass skittered across the tile and landed on my heels.

"You mean old witch! You can't make my dad leave!"

"New Mommy said she gave me her kidney! That means she's my real mom now, and all her money is mine! Get out!"

Derek didn't scold his son. He set down his teacup with quiet, practiced ease, stepped in front of the boy, and arranged his face into an expression of wounded dignity.

"Ms. Sullivan, I know you're the CEO of a publicly traded company. I know you look down on someone like me — a man who's had to fight for everything from the bottom up."

"But Vivi and I love each other. Genuinely. Throwing a million dollars at us to 'buy us off' — that's not just insulting. That's cruel."

"Mom! What is wrong with you!"

Vivi's eyes flooded with tears. She pressed a hand to her surgical site and struggled to push herself upright, her face twisted with accusation.

"Derek quit his sales job to be here with me every single day. He hasn't left my side once. How dare you humiliate him like this!"

I looked at this girl. My daughter. The one I'd carried for nine months, raised in luxury, given everything she ever wanted.

The blood drained from my face, and a cold, hollow grief spread through my chest.

"I'm humiliating him?"

"He's a thirty-five-year-old unemployed man with hundreds of thousands in debt. He's been draining your bank account from the moment you met. And I can't pay him to go away?"

"Ms. Sullivan, I'm going to stop you right there."

Derek straightened up. A flash of pure, unmasked arrogance crossed his eyes. The corner of his mouth curled.

"I may be going through some financial difficulties. But I give Vivi something money can't buy — emotional connection. I understand her. I cherish her."

"And Vivi has already proven that her love for me is worth a thousand times more than whatever's sitting in your accounts."

He paused for effect, then looked directly at me.

"To prove she would treat Benny as her own — no favoritism, no hesitation — Vivi signed the consent forms last week without telling you."

"She donated one of her kidneys to Benny."

The room tilted.

A living donor surgery. The kind that causes permanent, irreversible damage to a healthy body.

I lunged forward and grabbed the front of Vivi's hospital gown, my hands shaking.

"Vivian! Is that true? Have you completely lost your mind?!"

She flinched.

But then she turned and caught Derek's warm, approving gaze — and just like that, she squared her shoulders like she was ready for a fight.