My Donor Bone Marrow

The door crashed into the wall hard enough to make me flinch. Liam Blackwood, my husband, walked in with two bodyguards. His gray eyes passed over me and fixed on the humming cryo-cooler beside my bed. It held my last dose of donor bone marrow, after six months of waiting. Without it, my late-stage leukemia would kill me. “Get it,” Liam said. One bodyguard reached for the cooler. “Liam, no.” My voice barely carried over the heart monitor. I tried to sit up, and the room tipped sideways. “Please. You can’t. It’s the only thing keeping me alive.” I slid from the bed and hit the cold floor on my knees. My fist closed around the hem of his trousers. For years I had begged because I thought loving him harder might fix us. This time, I was begging to stay alive. He finally looked down. His attention caught on the dark bruise from my last IV, then on my bloodless skin. He moved half a step closer. His lips parted, almost forming the name he had not used in years. “Mr. Blackwood.” Dr. Evans stepped out from behind him and raised a file. “As I told you, Mrs. Blackwood is stable. This is a sympathy ploy to disrupt Miss Stone’s treatment.” Liam glanced at the file. His jaw tightened, and whatever had drawn him toward me was gone. “Hold her down.” One guard tore my hand from Liam’s trousers. The other lifted me onto the bed and pinned my shoulders while I kicked once, then ran out of strength. Liam picked up the cryo-cooler himself. He turned and walked out with my last chance of survival tucked under his arm. The latch clicked behind him. Even the heart monitor sounded far away. A nurse entered a moment later with a tray. She kept her eyes on the thick needle lying across it. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Blackwood. Mr. Blackwood ordered an 800ml blood transfusion for Miss Stone. As a backup.” He had taken the marrow, and now he wanted my blood for the woman who had destroyed my life. The needle entered my vein. The bag darkened while the edges of the room went gray. Footsteps returned as the room began to blur. His footsteps. Coming back.