Chapter 1

My husband and my three brothers dug out my heart for their favorite sister.

I drink the prenatal supplement Jade gives me. Seconds later, my stomach folds in on itself, as if someone’s twisting a rope inside me.

“C-section. We have to do a C-section,"Dr. Ethan Hart—my oldest brother, also　the best cardiac surgeon in Fairmont—says I need an emergency C-section.

My husband Julian Price screams, “Save her! I only want my wife!”

My three brothers crowd around me. Their eyes are red.

“Just sleep, Ivy, it’ll stop hurting. We have the best doctors, the best medicine."

When the pain is at its worst, I feel ridiculously lucky that the people who love me are right here.

Until I overhear them outside the door while I’m waiting for anesthesia.

Ethan’s voice carries a note of excitement I don’t like. “Ivy’s healthy, her blood type and age match. It’s a rare chance—let’s harvest her heart and transplant it to Jade.”

Marcus agrees—my second brother.

“I’ll arrange people to destroy the evidence. Ivy will never find out.”

Oliver chimes in—my third brother.

“I’ll formulate a targeted medication. Even if Ivy gets a bad heart, she won’t suffer.”

After a beat, My Husband Julian exhales like a man unburdened.

“Jade really needs a good heart to fulfill her dance dreams. As for Ivy… we’ll compensate her later. I’ll sign the consent now.”

It’s like a bucket of ice dumped over me.

My heart already feels like someone is carving it out of my chest with a dull knife.

Then a voice rings inside my head—familiar and utterly foreign—a cold electronic chime:

[ALERT: Host life at risk.]

[FINAL CONFIRMATION: Do you wish to forfeit all rewards and remain in this world?]

I laugh through my tears.

This time, their counterfeit love can’t chain me anymore.

—

I try to roll off the bed.

But a nurse shoves a tube down my throat and into my nose. Anesthesia floods my body.

Before the darkness swallows me, I see Jade—accentuated and rehearsed in her pity—being wheeled in. The foster sister they adore now, and the one who poisoned my baby.

Ethan holds his scalpel. He speaks coldly to the nurse: “Don’t bother with the dead fetus. Take her heart out and transplant it into Jade.”

I feel the blade slice through my skin, layer by layer. Right before I lose consciousness, I hear him whisper.

“Hold on, Jade. When you wake, you can shine on stage.”