Chapter 4

My sister?

A dry, bitter laugh bubbled up in my chest.

Where had they dredged up another disposable substitute from this time?

"Chloe, your sister... she's sick. Terribly sick. Only you can save her!"

Eleanor sounded completely shattered, entirely undone.

"I beg of you, Chloe! Just come see her, please! Just this once!"

I paused in silence for a few seconds before answering: "Send me the address."

I wanted to see with my own eyes what kind of sick performance they were staging this time.

Following the pin Eleanor texted me, I arrived at an ultra-exclusive private sanatorium on the outskirts of the city.

Inside the top-floor VIP hospice suite, I found Arthur and Eleanor Vance.

Three years apart, and they looked as though they had aged fifteen years.

Arthur’s broad posture had crumpled into a rounded slump, and deep, permanent wrinkles cut into the corners of Eleanor’s eyes.

The moment they saw me enter, their faces lit up with desperate relief, as if their personal savior had just walked through the door.

"Chloe! You came!" Eleanor lunged forward to grasp my arms, but I sidestepped smoothly, letting her hands grasp empty air.

Her fingers froze awkwardly in the space between us.

Arthur cleared his throat with a raspy cough, nodding toward the bed in the center of the room.

"Chloe... her name is Riley. She is your... biological sister."

I followed his gesture.

Curled up under the pristine white sheets was a young woman who looked roughly my age.

She was skeletal, her skin an eerie, translucent gray. Her eyes were glazed and vacant, and a thin trail of drool seeped from the corner of her slack mouth.

She was completely non-verbal, mentally impaired to the level of a toddler.

So this was the "lost biological daughter" they had tracked down?

"What's wrong with her?" I asked flatly.

"Aggressive leukemia," Eleanor whispered, her voice trembling violently. "The oncologists said she needs an emergency bone marrow transplant. It's her only chance of surviving."

"We... our entire extended family was screened. None of us were compatible," Arthur managed to say, every word sounding like he was swallowing gravel.

"The national registry cross-matched her profile... and your medical records flagged. Your HLA match is virtually identical. You have the absolute highest success rate."

The sickening pieces fell into place instantly.

They hadn't tracked me down to apologize or atone. They tracked me down to harvest my bone marrow for their newly found daughter.

What a cosmic, twisted joke.

Three years ago, they ripped out one of my kidneys to save their precious son.

Three years later, they wanted to drill into my bones to preserve their daughter.

What was I to them?

A walking, breathing organ dispensary to be raided whenever their bloodline started dying?

"Chloe," Eleanor suddenly dropped to her knees on the cold floor, wrapping her arms around my boots, weeping uncontrollably.

"I know we wronged you back then! We were monsters! We were heartless! But Riley is innocent! She's our flesh and blood who went missing twenty years ago! We searched for her for over two decades, and we only just found her!"

"She suffered unspeakably out there! She was abducted by traffickers, beaten until she was brain-damaged! And now she has this horrifying disease! She's lived such a miserable life! Please, have some pity on her! Save her life!"

Arthur’s eyes turned crimson with unshed tears, his voice breaking. "Chloe, if you just agree to save Riley, you can have anything you want. Mansions, luxury cars, corporate shares in Vance Enterprises. Name your price. Just say the word, and it’s yours."

They played their duet flawlessly, tears streaming, chest-beating, looking for all the world like two cornered, desperate parents.

If I hadn't already seen the rot underneath their polished facade, I might have actually been moved to tears.

Unfortunately, the naive, eager-to-please Chloe died on the rain-slicked pavement three years ago.

I stared down at them, letting every word drop like a lead weight: "You bought my kidney for fifteen thousand dollars. So tell me... how much are you offering to buy my bone marrow for?"