The Fake Heiress Had Me Killed

Chapter 3 For My Kidney

Once upon a time, he'd braved an all-night queue just to get me that limited-edition doll I'd been eyeing.

I still remember how he'd carried my feverish body through the snowstorm, each labored step sinking deep as he raced toward the hospital.

But after the accident, every ounce of that devotion became Sierra's birthright.

Gazing at his familiar profile now made my stomach twist into knots. Yet like a fool, I nodded anyway.

A glint of triumph flashed in Harrison's eyes when I agreed.

True to his word, he carried me downstairs the next morning and buckled me into the car with surprising gentleness. As the cityscape blurred past the window, I pressed my palm against the glass. After twelve years in shadows, sunlight felt like liquid gold on my skin, the outside world exploding with colors I'd nearly forgotten. A dangerous hope fluttered in my chest.

Until the tires crunched to a stop outside a clinic that looked like it belonged in a back alley. Peeling paint, flickering neon sign. This was no proper medical facility.

"Harrison," I whispered, fingers digging into the car seat, "you promised me the ocean."

All warmth drained from his face, leaving behind something colder than the Arctic. "We'll get there. But first, business."

He hauled me out like a sack of potatoes, my legs dangling uselessly as he strode toward the clinic doors.

"Sierra's adoptive mother needs a kidney donor," he said coldly. "Since you're already a useless cripple, you might as well make yourself convenient."

Dread turned my veins to ice.

"No!" I screamed, clawing at his arms hard enough to draw blood. "I'm your real sister! How could you..."

"Maisie!" he snarled, shaking me like a ragdoll. "That woman raised Sierra as her own! You should be grateful to help repay that debt!"

"I'm not your f*****g spare parts!" My voice broke as terror closed around my throat. "I'm your blood!"

The blow snapped my head sideways, my vision exploding with white stars.

"Say that again," he breathed, eyes burning with the fury of a lion guarding its pride. "Sierra is the only daughter this family recognizes. If not for our parents' charity, you'd be rotting with your deadbeat gambler father right now."

Harrison's words stabbed my already broken heart like rusty nails, reopening old wounds. I let out a bitter laugh.

"Harrison, how can you live with yourself?"

"I heard everything," I continued, "your little chat with Zachary."

"You faked the DNA test! Sierra was never our sister!"

I shouted the truth until my throat burned, my whole body shaking from the effort. His face went deathly pale. His expression shifted, first shock, then panic, finally settling into murderous rage.

"You... know everything?"

Like a cornered snake striking out, he lunged, his hands closing around my throat like a vise.

"Who told you to eavesdrop?! Maisie, why would you destroy me?! I finally got this family back to normal, why are you tearing it apart?!"

Gasping for air, I scratched desperately at his arms. Nurses came running, dragging him away from me.

Smoothing his rumpled clothes with angry jerks, he smacked a wad of bills against a nurse's cheek.

"Take her blood!" he barked. "I don't care what it takes, just get me that sample!"