Too Late For His Forgiveness

The man I loved, the man I was going to marry, asked me to save my twin sister' s life. He didn't look at me as he explained that Annabell's kidneys were failing completely.

Then, he slid the annulment papers across the table. It wasn't just my kidney they wanted. It was my fiancé, too. He told me Annabell's dying wish was to marry him, even for a day.

My family' s reaction was brutal.

"After everything we've done for you?" my mother shrieked. "Annabell saved your father's life! She gave him a piece of herself! And you can't do the same for her?"

My father stood beside her, with his face grim. He told me if I wouldn't be a part of the family, I didn't belong in his house. I was being cast out. Again.

They didn't know the truth. They didn't know that five years ago, Annabell drugged my coffee, causing me to miss our father's transplant surgery. She took my place, emerging a hero with a fake scar while I woke up in a cheap motel, branded a coward. The kidney humming inside my father was mine.

They didn't know I only had one kidney left. And they certainly didn't know that a rare disease was already ravaging my body, giving me only months to live.

Abel found me later, his voice ragged.

"Choose, Aurora. Her, or you."

A strange calm washed over me. What did it matter anymore? I looked at the man who once promised me forever and agreed to sign my life away.

"Fine," I said. "I'll do it."

Chapter 1

Aurora Hinton POV:

The man I loved, the man I was going to marry, asked me to save my sister' s life. Then he handed me the papers to end ours.

Abel Byrd didn' t look at me as he slid the crisp document across the polished wood of my small dining table. His jaw was tight, a muscle twitching just below his ear. The exhaustion in his eyes wasn't just from lack of sleep; it was a deep, soul-level weariness that had been settling in for weeks.

"It's Annabell," he said, his voice low and rough, as if he' d swallowed gravel. "Her kidneys... they're failing, Aurora. Completely."

I didn't flinch. I already knew. The whispers in my family home had become a roar I could no longer ignore. My twin sister, Annabell, the fragile porcelain doll my family had spent a lifetime protecting, was finally shattering.

"The doctors said she needs a transplant. Immediately."

I traced the edge of the table with my finger, my gaze fixed on the papers. The words at the top were stark and black: ANNULMENT OF ENGAGEMENT.

He finally looked up, his beautiful face etched with a pain so profound it almost felt like my own. "We need your kidney, Aurora."

There it was. The request that was not a request. It was a demand, wrapped in the guise of desperation. He hesitated, his hand hovering in the air between us before falling back to his side. It was a small gesture of defeat.

"This is the only way she'll accept it," he continued, his voice dropping even lower. "She feels... guilty. About us. She thinks she's tearing us apart."

I almost laughed. The sound that escaped my throat was a dry, hollow thing. Annabell, feeling guilty. That was a new one.

"Your parents agree. We all do. This is what's best." He was trying to sound resolute, like a man making a hard but necessary decision. But I could see the cracks in his armor. I could see the man I loved drowning under the weight of my family' s expectations.

"I still love you, Aurora. You have to know that," he whispered, and that was the part that truly broke me. Not the demand for my organ, not even the annulment papers. It was the lie. The soft, gentle lie he told himself, and me, to make the blade of his betrayal slide in smoother.

"After she's recovered," he promised, his eyes pleading with me. "After this is all over, we can fix this. I promise."

My gaze fell back to the legal document. A promise from a man who was asking me to sign away our future. It was worthless.

Annabell had been chronically ill her entire life, or so we were told. A weak heart, fragile lungs, a constitution that couldn't handle stress. She was a delicate flower that needed constant tending, while I was the hardy weed that could be neglected, trampled on, and expected to grow back just as strong.

Now, her kidneys had failed. End-stage renal disease. The words sounded clinical, distant, but their meaning was a death sentence without a donor.

And according to Abel, she had one last wish before succumbing to the darkness.

"She wants to marry me, Aurora," he confessed, the words tumbling out in a rush of shame. "It's... her dying wish. To be my wife, even for a day."

To be my husband' s wife.

He was trying to soften it, to frame it as a noble sacrifice, a final act of mercy for a dying girl. "It's just a ceremony, Rory. It doesn't mean anything. My heart is with you."

His struggle was palpable. He ran a hand through his dark hair, the gesture frantic. He was being pulled apart, and in his desperation, he had chosen to sacrifice me to save himself from the torment.

I stared at the papers again. My name, Aurora Hinton, typed neatly beside a blank line. His name, Abel Byrd, already signed in a confident, familiar script.

He was asking me to give my sister my kidney, my fiancé, and my future. All in one, clean transaction. And he was doing it with a declaration of love on his lips.

The irony was so thick I could taste it, bitter as poison on my tongue.