Two sentences. That was all it took. Delivered with the casual air of a joke, they'd destroyed everything I had.
And when I finally confronted him about it, years later, after I'd built myself into something, he waved it off like smoke.
"I don't remember that. It was just a joke. Let it go."
The sting behind my nose wouldn't fade.
Dr. Cobb's brow furrowed deep. He glanced at his watch, then his eyes cut to the cold-storage container holding the donor kidney.
Ten minutes. That was all that remained before the organ became completely unviable.
"Mr. Gilbert, we don't have time to keep going back and forth! Once that kidney loses viability, no one on earth can save you!"
"If this is all a misunderstanding, then the surgery proceeds!"
I looked at my father one last time, long and hard. Then I turned away.
From the crowd of onlookers, someone seemed to recognize me.
"Harmony Corp... wait, is that the Harmony Corp that just went public?! Then this guy is the CEO!"
My father nodded, his face splitting into a grin.
"That's right! If my son weren't the CEO of Harmony Corp, he probably couldn't have paid his way to the front of the line."
Those words were a lit match tossed into gasoline.
Every pair of eyes in the crowd swiveled toward me. Most of them belonged to families of other patients—people who had waited months, sometimes years, for a donor organ. If there was one thing they despised above all else, it was someone cutting in line.
And through it all, my father just kept smiling, nudging the nearest patient's family member with his shoulder like they were old friends.
"My son's the executive CEO of Harmony Corp. If you need a kidney, I'll just have him get you one!"
"He always says waiting in line is for poor people. And if you're poor, well—that's your problem!"
The moment those words left his mouth, the furious crowd closed in around me and the medical team.
One man lunged forward, snatching a scalpel from a surgical tray and raising it toward me.
I couldn't dodge in time. All I could do was squeeze my eyes shut.
When I opened them again, my sister was there.
Camila Gilbert had rushed over in her white coat and thrown herself between me and the blade. She seized the man's wrist, her grip iron-tight, forcing his fingers open.
Clang.
The scalpel hit the floor.
Camila's brow creased with frustration, and she turned to our father.
"Dad! What kind of joke are you pulling this time?!"
"Do you have any idea how long my brother waited for this kidney? How could you do this to him?!"
Under Camila's explanation, the crowd of families gradually calmed down.
But they didn't leave.
They stood there, glaring at me with undisguised hostility.
Dr. Cobb let out a heavy sigh.
"If this kidney was obtained by cutting the line, then by all rights, we shouldn't be performing this surgery."
He looked at me. Pity in his eyes. And resignation.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Gilbert."
"As things stand, neither the STD allegation nor the question of whether you jumped the queue can be resolved quickly."
With that, he turned and motioned for his team to leave.
My mother's eyes went wild with desperation. She dropped to her knees in front of the doctors.
"My son would never do any of those things!"
Her eyes were raw and red, her whole body swaying as if she might collapse at any second.
"Doctor, I'm begging you—save my son! If he can't get this transplant, he'll..."
She couldn't finish the sentence.
She didn't need to. We all knew. Without that kidney, I was already halfway in the grave.
She had never been good with words. The only thing she could offer now was her own dignity, traded for my life.
Camila stepped in front of the medical team, blocking their path.
"Dr. Cobb, I'm staking my entire career on this—my brother is not that kind of person!"
"Everything I've achieved, I owe to him!"
"And that STD accusation? Baseless slander, nothing more. My brother is the CEO of Harmony Corp. He's always conducted himself with integrity. There's no way he'd have contracted something like that!"
