Chapter 2

The memory of that ultimatum replayed, sharp and cruel.

Ethan, fawning over Chloe, her hand possessively on his chest.

Leo, my sweet Leo, calling her "Mommy" while I was right there, a ghost in my own home.

Ethan' s voice, accusing me of sabotage at an industry showcase years ago.

"You tried to ruin her, Sarah. You were jealous."

Chloe, then, would play her part, feigning a wounded heart but ultimately offering forgiveness.

"It's okay, Ethan. I understand. It must have been hard for her to see someone else succeed with... similar material."

The truth was simpler, uglier.

Chloe had been a nobody, a pretty face with a mediocre voice.

She found my demo tapes, my notebooks filled with lyrics and melodies, songs I poured my soul into.

She took them. All of them.

When I tried to get them back, to tell the world what she' d done, Ethan stepped in.

He was already powerful then, his tech company on the rise.

He arranged an "accident."

A hit-and-run. The driver was never found.

It left me in this chair, with pain that never truly left.

"You' re just in a chair," Ethan had dismissed my agony once, his voice cold. "Chloe almost lost her entire career because of your bitterness!"

He truly believed it. Chloe had woven her lies so skillfully, he was tangled in them completely.

Now, in this replayed torment, Chloe, ever the concerned friend, insisted her personal physician examine me.

"Just to be sure you're alright, Sarah. We worry."

The physician was from a clinic Ethan funded heavily. A puppet.

I knew I was unwell. The untreated injuries from the "accident," the poor food, the constant stress.

But the physician, after a cursory check, declared me "stable."

He noted my rare blood type, a detail Ethan already knew. A detail that now felt ominous.

Then, the drama peaked.

Chloe, mid-sentence about her upcoming charity single (one of my stolen songs, no doubt), gasped.

She clutched her chest, her perfectly made-up face contorting in pain.

She collapsed onto the plush carpet.

The physician rushed to her side.

After a tense moment, he looked up, his face grave.

"It's her heart. A severe, rapidly deteriorating condition. She needs a transplant. Immediately."

Ethan' s gaze, sharp and calculating, swung to me.

Fixed on me.