"Hello, I want to report Jerome Swanson and Stacy James for using illegal methods to steal my kidney donor!"
"What is your relationship with these two individuals?"
"Do you have concrete evidence?"
The operator's voice remained calm and professional.
I murmured under my breath.
"They're... my parents."
The operator's tone shifted, rising involuntarily.
"Your parents stole your kidney donor?!"
"For a stranger?!"
Ignoring her shock, I recounted everything.
Back in my rented basement room, I waited for hours.
During that time, my parents didn't call once. Didn't send a single text.
It wasn't until the third hour that Mom's number finally lit up my screen.
"Penelope, you've really outdone yourself!"
"You actually dared to report me and your father!"
"Having a child like you—we should have strangled you at birth!"
"You want that kidney so badly? Fine. We'll give it to you."
"But the surgery costs fifty-five thousand dollars. Do you have that kind of money?"
Her voice dripped with contempt. Then, just as quickly, she softened her tone.
"We're only doing this for your own good. There will be other kidneys. You just need to be a good girl and listen to us..."
The moment I heard that familiar manipulation, I hung up without hesitation and called Dr. Chavez.
"Dr. Chavez, I can get the money together. I have to have this transplant!"
He sighed, his voice heavy with reluctance.
"Penelope, a kidney can only be preserved for thirty-six hours."
"You need to hurry."
The moment I ended the call, I messaged every classmate I had from college, asking to borrow money.
Then, fighting through the exhaustion clawing at my body, I started taking delivery orders.
I had thirty hours left.
I couldn't lose.
For the next thirty hours, I didn't sleep. I delivered like a woman possessed.
On my final order, running on nothing but willpower, I pulled up to a mansion in the wealthy district and dialed the customer's number.
"Hello, your delivery has arrived—"
Before I could finish, an impatient horn blared behind me.
Honk. Honk. Honk.
"Hey, delivery girl! Move it!"
I turned.
And saw my parents in the car.
They were dressed impeccably—expensive, polished, dripping with luxury.
In the backseat sat a bald little girl with a pale, sickly face.
Her eyes sparkled as she clutched a cake.
A cake that cost over four hundred dollars.
In that moment, the world inside the car and the world outside it felt like two different planets.
Without thinking, I stepped aside to let them pass.
The security guard's voice drifted to my ears, reverent and envious.
"Director Swanson and Director James are really something—wealthy and generous. I heard this is the nineteenth patient they've sponsored."
"Can you imagine how lucky their kids must be?"
Lucky to be their child?
I caught my reflection in the glass—gaunt, colorless, hollow.
A bitter smirk twisted my lips as I turned and walked away.
Thirty hours.
I scraped together fifty-five thousand dollars like my life depended on it.
Because it did.
The moment I handed over the payment at the hospital, I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. My vision went black, and I nearly collapsed right there.
I had just turned to leave when someone grabbed the back of my head and slammed my face into the glass of the payment window.
"So you're the one who stole my daughter's kidney!"
"You piece of garbage! Give it back!"
My skull pressed against the cold glass, my ears ringing.
A rough, foul-smelling hand clamped over my face.
The man's eyes were bloodshot, his teeth bared like he wanted to tear me apart.
Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a girl—seventeen, maybe eighteen—being clutched tightly by a sobbing middle-aged woman.
"Everyone, look at this!"
The woman's voice rose to a shriek.
"This is the girl who stole the kidney we waited a whole year for—"
