CHAPTER 1
The day my doctor told me a donor heart had finally been found, I overheard my husband giving it to another woman.
For a moment, I thought I'd heard wrong.
I sat frozen outside Dr. Harrison's office, the test results trembling in my hands.
After three years.
Three years of hospital beds.
Three years of medications.
Three years of waiting for a miracle.
A compatible donor heart had finally been found.
I should have been happy.
Instead, I felt cold.
Because through the slightly opened conference room door across the hall, I heard my husband's voice.
"Move Vanessa Blake to the top of the transplant list."
My breath caught.
Vanessa Blake.
The name alone sent a sharp ache through my chest.
Ethan's first love.
The woman he once planned to marry before she disappeared from his life seven years ago.
I slowly stood and moved closer to the door.
Maybe I misunderstood.
Maybe there was another explanation.
There had to be.
"Mr. Carter," a doctor said carefully, "according to protocol, Mrs. Carter is first in line for this donor match."
My heart pounded heavily in my chest.
Silence followed, then Ethan spoke again.
"I know the protocol."
His voice was calm.
"The board answers to me. Make the adjustment."
"But your wife—"
"My wife can wait."
My world stopped.
I stared at the door, the words echoing inside my head.
My wife can wait.
For months, I'd counted down every hospital appointment, every test result, every phone call from the transplant team.
Every time my phone rang, I'd hoped it would be the call telling me a heart had finally been found.
Every time it wasn't, I'd smiled anyway and told myself to be patient.
Ethan had been there through all of it.
He held my hand after the procedure.
Sat beside my hospital bed through sleepless nights.
Promised me over and over that we'd get through this together.
Yet standing outside that conference room, listening to him choose another woman, I realized I'd been fighting for our future while he had already decided who deserved one.
Three years of fighting to stay alive suddenly felt meaningless.
The donor heart wasn't just compatible, it was extremely rare.
The chances of finding another one anytime soon were almost impossible.
The doctors had warned me that without a transplant, my condition would continue to worsen.
Without a transplant…I was dying.
Yet Ethan had decided someone else deserved my chance to live.
The conference room door opened suddenly.
I barely stepped back in time.
The doctors came out first, their expressions uneasy.
Then Ethan appeared, tall and perfectly dressed in a dark suit.
The same man I'd loved for five years.
The same man who once sat beside my hospital bed and promised he would never let anything happen to me.
The same man who had just given away my heart.
His eyes widened slightly when he saw me.
"Lena?"
I forced myself to smile. "Is the meeting finished?"
Something flickered across his face.
Guilt.
Just for a second, then it disappeared.
"Yeah."
His gaze dropped to the folder in my hands. "What did Dr. Harrison say?"
I swallowed hard.
I wanted to ask him why.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to demand how he could choose another woman over me.
But the words refused to come out.
Instead, I said quietly, "He found a donor."
For the first time all day, Ethan looked genuinely surprised.
"A donor heart?"
I nodded.
The muscles in his jaw tightened. As though my news had complicated something for him.
My stomach twisted.
"That's great news," he said after a pause.
The lie sounded hollow.
I looked into his eyes and realized something terrifying.
He already knew.
Of course he knew.
He was the hospital director.
There was no way information that important wouldn't have crossed his desk.
The donor heart, the transplant schedule.
He knew everything, and he still chose Vanessa.
A sharp pain shot through my chest.
I pressed a hand against it instinctively.
Immediately, Ethan stepped forward, concern flashing across his face as if he hadn't just handed my future to another woman.
"Lena?"
"I'm fine." I said taking a step away from him.
"You don't look fine."
Funny.
Now he was worried, after deciding whether I lived or died.
"I'm just tired."
The concern stayed for a moment before his phone rang.
I already knew who it was before he looked at the screen.
Vanessa.
His expression softened as he answered immediately.
"Vanessa?"
A weak female voice carried through the speaker.
"Ethan... I'm sorry. I know you're busy. I just got dizzy again."
His face filled with concern. "I'm coming."
The words came so naturally without hesitation.
He looked at me. "I need to go."
Of course he did.
Vanessa needed him.
When had I stopped being the woman who needed him?
"I'll be okay," I said.
Something about my tone made him frown.
"Lena..."
But his phone buzzed again.
Vanessa.
And just like always, he chose her.
"I'll come by tonight."
Then he was gone.
I stood there alone in the hallway, watching my husband walk away.
Watching him hurry toward another woman.
A nurse approached me carefully.
"Mrs. Carter?"
I turned.
She looked uncomfortable.
Sympathetic.
Almost guilty.
"Is everything alright?"
I stared at the elevator where Ethan had disappeared.
Then I laughed softly. "No."
The nurse's expression fell.
I looked down at the folder in my hands.
At the transplant approval papers.
At the heart that was supposed to save my life, the future my husband had already decided to give away.
And for the first time since my diagnosis three years ago, I stopped being afraid of dying.
Because something hurts far worse than death.
Being chosen last by the person who promised to choose you forever.
I closed the folder and pulled out my phone.
Then I dialed the number of the only person who had never abandoned me.
My older brother answered on the second ring.
"Lena?"
I closed my eyes. "Can I stay with you for a while?"
A long silence followed.
Then his voice turned serious. "What happened?"
I looked toward the elevator one last time.
Toward the direction Ethan had gone.
Then I whispered, "I think my husband just signed my death sentence.”
