REBOUND

THE PRICE

CHAPTER TWO: The Price

I didn't sleep that night, and when my alarm went off at 5:30 AM I was already dressed wondering what Kai Donovan wanted badly enough to threaten my brother's life over.

The apartment was quiet except for the hum of the refrigerator and Mom's soft breathing from her bedroom. I wrote her a note saying I had early study group and left it on the counter next to her coffee mug, hating how easy the lies were getting.

The first bus was almost empty, just me and an old man reading yesterday's newspaper and a woman in scrubs nodding off against the window. I sat in the back watching the city wake up through streaked glass, streetlights clicking off one by one as the sky turned from black to that weird purple color before sunrise. My hands wouldn't stop shaking so I shoved them in my pockets and tried to breathe, but breathing normally felt impossible now.

Ashford looked different at 6:45 AM without crowds of students and idling cars. The main building loomed against the sunrise all dark stone and tall windows, and standing at the bottom of the steps was Kai Donovan in yesterday's clothes.

I stopped a few feet away, close enough to talk but far enough to run.

"You came," he said, and something in his voice sounded almost relieved before his face went blank.

"You didn't give me a choice."

"Everyone has a choice. You just know what yours costs." He started walking around the side of the building. "Come on."

The path curved between perfectly trimmed hedges that probably had their own gardener, and the morning air smelled like cut grass and money. Our footsteps crunched on gravel, the only sound besides birds waking up in the trees.

"How's Ethan?" Kai asked it casual.

"Don't pretend you care."

He stopped and turned to me, and his expression shifted just enough that I saw something raw underneath. "My mom died when I was twelve from what Ethan has. So yeah, I know what you're going through. I just don't care the way you want me to."

My stomach dropped. "That doesn't give you the right to use him against me."

"No, it doesn't. But I'm doing it anyway." He kept walking.

The basketball facility appeared ahead, all glass and steel catching early sunlight. Kai unlocked a side door and held it open with mocking politeness. Inside smelled like floor wax and old sweat, and he led me past trophy cases to a door marked FILM ROOM.

The lights were harsh when he flipped them on. Rows of leather chairs faced a massive screen, and on the front table sat a folder thick as a phone book.

"Sit."

I sat because my legs were shaking.

He dropped the folder in my lap, heavy enough that I grunted. "Ethan's complete medical file. Took three days but I know people."

"How..."

"Page forty-seven."

I flipped through pages until I found it. A letter from Ethan's doctor, dated two weeks ago.

Patient presents as ideal candidate for Protocol 7 experimental treatment. However, family financial constraints preclude enrollment.

"They rejected him because we can't pay."

"Not rejected. Ineligible due to funding." Kai sat next to me, close enough that I could smell his cologne. "My father funds Protocol 7. If I ask him to sponsor a patient, they get in. Full funding, everything."

I looked up at him. "Why tell me this?"

"Because I'm offering you a deal." That playful cruelty from yesterday crossed his face. "You play my girlfriend for four months, convince my father it's real so he backs off about Emily, and I get Ethan into Protocol 7."

"No."

He blinked. "No?"

"You can't just buy me because you have money and my brother's dying."

"Yes, I can. That's exactly what I'm doing."

"Then you're wrong." I stood and headed for the door but he blocked me.

"Sit down, Iris."

"Get out of my way."

"Unless you want to walk out knowing you just killed your brother because you were too proud." His voice went sharp.

"That's not fair."

"Life isn't fair. My mom died and my father spent millions and it didn't matter. So yeah, I know it's unfair and I'm using it anyway." He moved closer and I backed into the wall. "Four months. That's all. Four months and Ethan lives."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then he stays ineligible and dies."

I slid down the wall until I was sitting with my knees to my chest. I thought about Ethan asking if the doctors would make him better and how I'd lied and said yes. About Mom barely sleeping. About the word hope I hadn't let myself feel in months.

"Four months," I whispered.

"What?"

"I'll do it." I looked up at him. "I'll pretend and make it real. But after four months, you never talk to me again."

"Deal." He held out his hand.

I didn't take it. Just stood and wiped my face.

"We start at lunch today," he said, that edge back in his voice. "You sit at my table."

"Not today. I need time."

"Yes, today." He showed me his phone with a photo of the Protocol 7 page. "Or this gets lost and Ethan never gets another chance. So you sit with me and smile and make it look real."

"You're terrible."

"I know. But I'm saving your brother's life." He almost smiled. "Think about that before you hate me."

He left and I sat back down in one of those expensive chairs and stared at Ethan's file scattered on the floor. I let myself cry for exactly two minutes because that's all I could afford.

Then I wiped my face and picked up the papers and walked outside where students were arriving. My phone buzzed.

Cafeteria at noon. You know where I sit.

I thought about Ethan's smile and Mom's exhausted face and the word ineligible that had felt like death until now.

Four months. I could survive anything for four months if it meant Ethan survived forever.

I just had to figure out how to smile while everything inside me broke.