Chapter 3

"Fifty thousand?!"

Veins bulged across the back of my hand, nearly shattering my phone screen.

"Chloe, are you insane?! You're just going there to sign the emergency consent form and pay the deposit, and you want fifty grand?!"

"Take it or leave it. Call me when the funds clear."

*Click.* She hung up.

I stared blankly at the dark screen, a terrifying chill creeping from the soles of my feet up to my spine.

With trembling fingers, I called Mrs. Gable back.

"Mrs. Gable, what did the doctors say?"

"Logan, where is your wife?! The surgeons say they have to operate immediately! They need a family signature and a $50,000 emergency deposit! She's hemorrhaging, Logan!"

Mrs. Gable was sobbing.

"I... I'm getting the money right now!"

I hung up and frantically scrolled through my contacts.

Over the past three years, Chloe and her family had bled me dry. I had zero personal savings left.

I called a coworker: "Mark, can you lend me $50k? Emergency! My mom’s in critical condition!"

"Ah, Logan, bad timing man, I just closed on a house..."

I called a college buddy: "Bro, I need a lifeline. Fifty grand. I'll pay you back next month with interest!"

"Uh... my wife keeps the accounts locked tight..."

Desperate, humiliated, I made call after call.

Finally, staring at one last name in my contacts, I swallowed my pride and dialed.

The woman on the other end had a calm, elegant voice. Without asking a single question, she wired $200,000 into my account within thirty seconds.

Seeing the deposit alert, tears broke from my eyes.

I immediately wired $50,000 to Chloe, attaching an urgent voice memo:

"The money is sent! Fifty grand! Get to the hospital right this second! Move!"

Chloe accepted the transfer within seconds.

She didn't reply.

I called her twenty times in a row. No answer.

Right before boarding my flight, I texted Mrs. Gable:

*Did Chloe arrive?*

No response.

The cabin doors closed. I was forced to switch my phone to airplane mode.

During those three agonizing hours in the air, I sat like a man on death row.

I prayed. I told myself that no matter how greedy Chloe was, she took the money—she would do the job.

This was a human life.

If she had the heart to save me from a river three years ago, she couldn't be completely devoid of humanity, right?

Even if she only went for the cash, as long as my mom lived, I didn't care about the fifty grand.

I would work myself to the bone to repay the debt.

Just please, let my mother survive...

The second the landing gear hit the tarmac, I tore my phone out of my pocket and turned it on.

Dozens of notifications crashed in.

The latest message was from Mrs. Gable, sent an hour ago.

A single sentence that dragged me straight into hell.

*Logan, be strong... your mother... she's gone.*

My phone slipped from my fingers and slammed onto the cabin floor.

My mother... she was supposed to watch me succeed. She was waiting to see her future grandchildren...

How could she just be gone?

When I stumbled into the basement hallway outside the hospital morgue, it was desolate and freezing. Only Mrs. Gable was sitting on the metal bench, wiping away tears.

Seeing me, she shot up, her eyes bloodshot.

"Logan! You foolish boy! Where were you?!"

"That wife of yours... that goddamn monster of a woman! She never showed up! She never came!"

"What?" My voice was raw, barely a whisper. "I wired her fifty thousand... she took the cash..."

"To hell with her cash!" Mrs. Gable screamed through tears. "The surgeon came out three times saying time was up! I called her, and she said the rain was too heavy to get an Uber, so she was waiting for it to stop! Waiting for the rain to stop?! While your mother was dying?!"

I don't remember how I walked out of that hospital.

The freezing chill of the morgue seemed to have settled permanently inside my marrow, making my entire skeleton shake.

Mrs. Gable’s son came and drove her home.

I walked the streets alone.

The rain poured down, stinging my face, but it couldn't wash away the burning agony and self-loathing ripping through my chest.

My phone vibrated in my pocket.

It was a text from Chloe:

*Hey Logan, what's with you? You send the money and go radio silent?*

*The clinic said it wouldn't hurt to wait until the storm passed. I know your mom—she loves faking illnesses for attention. This was probably just another stunt to manipulate us.*

*By the way, Tyler found a sound system for his new car, about $25,000. Since you clearly have cash to spare, wire some more over. Your mom’s medical bill won’t cost that much anyway.*

Staring at those cruel, venomous words on the screen, a bizarre laugh tore from my throat.

I laughed until tears mixed with the rain.

This was the woman I had bankrupted myself to support.

This was the "savior" whose bottomless greed I had tolerated for three whole years.

To repay a debt of life, I turned myself into their obedient dog.

And the result?

My mother was dead.

While Chloe was complaining that the rain ruined her blowout, my mother was lying cold and alone on a surgical gurney, dying without even getting to say goodbye to her only son.

Ahead of me, through the sheet of rain, the blinding high beams of a heavy-duty semi-truck ripped through the darkness.

I didn't step back.

Living was too exhausting. Too painful.

If this was about paying debts, I had paid enough.

If this was about atonement, then I would use this miserable life to accompany my mother.

I closed my eyes.

The deafening screech of tires tore through the night.

Yet the bone-crushing impact never came. Instead, a pair of slender, trembling arms wrapped tightly around my waist, dragging me violently back onto the curb.

"Are you insane?!"

A woman's voice, furious yet cracking with tears, exploded right above my ear.