Chapter 2

Donny Bradshaw POV:

I woke up to a searing pain in my side and the sterile scent of antiseptic. For a moment, confusion clouded my mind, thick as the morning fog over Miller' s Pond. Then it came rushing back: the bright lights of the operating room, the anesthesiologist' s kind eyes telling me to count backward from ten, Diane' s face hovering over me, whispering, "You' re my hero, Donny."

The surgery was a success. I knew it was, even before the nurse told me. I could feel it in the relieved energy that buzzed just outside my room. Mr. Decker was going to be okay. I had done it. I had saved him.

I had secured our forever.

Diane came in later that afternoon. She wasn't wearing the soft sweater I loved, the one that smelled like her lavender perfume. She was dressed in a sharp, navy blue pantsuit, her hair pulled back so tightly it seemed to stretch the skin around her eyes. She didn't look like my fiancée coming to sit by my bedside. She looked like a CEO about to close a deal.

She didn't kiss me. She just stood at the foot of my bed, her purse clutched in her hands like a shield.

"My father is awake," she said, her voice flat. "The kidney is working perfectly. The doctors are very optimistic."

"That's great, Di," I managed, my voice raspy. I tried to push myself up, but the pull on my stitches was agonizing. "That's... that's all that matters."

"Yes," she said. "It is."

The silence that followed was heavy, suffocating. It wasn't the comfortable silence of two people in love. It was the silence of a courtroom before the verdict is read.

"I' m so glad I could do this for you, for your family," I said, trying to fill the void. "Now we can finally just... be."

Diane' s expression didn' t change. "About that, Donny."

My blood ran cold.

"I can't marry you," she said. The words were clipped, precise, and utterly devoid of emotion. They landed in the quiet room like stones dropping into a deep well.

I stared at her, certain this was some cruel, post-anesthesia hallucination. "What are you talking about? Did you hit your head? We're getting married in three months."

"No," she said, shaking her head slowly. "We're not."

"But... why?" The question was a raw whisper. The pain in my side was nothing compared to the crushing weight suddenly pressing down on my chest. "I don't understand. I did it. I did what you asked. I saved your father."

A flicker of something-annoyance, maybe?-crossed her face. "And for that, my family will be forever grateful. We'll cover all your medical expenses, of course. And my father has set up a trust for you. It's quite generous."

A trust? Medical expenses? She was talking to me like I was an employee being given a severance package, not the man she was supposed to spend her life with. Not the man who had a six-inch incision in his side and one less organ because of her.

The pieces started to click into place, sharp and painful. The way she' d had me tested without my knowledge. The way she' d framed it as a test of love. The pantsuit.

My voice trembled. "This was always the plan, wasn't it? Get the kidney, then get rid of me."

She had the decency to look away, her gaze fixing on the IV drip beside my bed. "It wasn't supposed to be like this. But things change."

"What things?" I demanded, my voice cracking. "What could possibly have changed between me going into surgery and now?"

She finally met my eyes, and the coldness in them was absolute. "Eugene is back."

Eugene Crosby. Of course. Her wealthy, arrogant ex-boyfriend from college. The one her mother always said she should have ended up with. The one who drove a Porsche and owned a summer home in the Hamptons. The one I could never compete with.

"He came to the hospital when he heard about my father," she continued, her voice softening for the first time, but not for me. "He was so supportive, so strong. He reminded me of what my life is supposed to look like. What our family needs."

"And what is that?" I choked out. "Someone who can buy you things? I work hard, Di. I would have given you everything."

"You already did," she said, and the cruelty of it stole my breath. "You gave my father a second chance at life. That's more than enough. But you can't give me the world I belong in, Donny. Eugene can."

The sterile hospital room started to spin. The rhythmic beep of the heart monitor sped up, a frantic soundtrack to my world shattering. I had been a tool. A means to an end. My sacrifice wasn't a testament to our love; it was the price of her father's health, and my exit fee.

Tears streamed down my face, hot and useless. The love I felt for her was curdling into something toxic and bitter in my gut.

"So that's it?" I whispered, the words tearing at my raw throat. "You use me, you take a part of my body, and then you throw me away for him?"

"Don't be so dramatic," she said, her voice turning sharp again. "You're a good man, Donny. You'll be fine. The trust will ensure you're comfortable."

She placed a crisp white envelope on the bedside table. "This is from my father. A thank you."

She turned to leave.

"Diane," I called out, my voice breaking.

She paused at the door, her back to me.

"I loved you," I said, the words feeling like ash in my mouth.

She didn't answer. She just opened the door and walked out, leaving me alone with the gaping hole in my side and the even bigger one she had just ripped through my life. The steady beep of the monitor was the only sound, each pulse marking another second of my new, empty forever.